What If
by XrhiaX
Summary: What if Zuko hadn't betrayed Katara in Ba Sing Se? Chapter-An-Episode, starting with Crossroads of Destiny. Eventual canon-ish Zutara. T for author's tendencies and lack of self-control/class.
1. Crossroads Of Destiny

A fire blast burst between Azula and Aang. Both turned their heads to look at the source of the flame. Zuko stood, his flat palm outstretched to where the flame had just landed, a fist drawn out behind him, ready to fire again. He first aimed it toward Azula, who met his gaze with a harsh eye. He redirected toward Aang, who steadied his stance in preparation. He stood completely still for a long time.

"Make up your mind, Zuzu, we can't set up camp to wait for your decision." Azula sneered with a cackle.

He became a statue that only changed the direction of his gaze. A low grumble escaped his lips as he glanced at Azula again. She looked too comfortable with this. She was playing him, he knew it. A smirk was drawn on her face, and two fingers on the end of each hand readied themselves to shoot at the Avatar. The offer of his father's love was definitely attractive.

_Azula always lies._

Uncle had done so much to get him on the right path. He could determine his own path, now. Did he really want to go back home, anyway? What was there? Servants? Yes. Friends? Sort of. Love? Mai? His mother? Really, what did he have at home?

_Azula always lies._

Was he really going to go back on his word? He had never done that before. He may have been an outright jerk sometimes, but he was honest about it. He'd never been someone known for being dishonest. But to have his honor back? That was truly something he wanted. To be able to see his homeland again. To be able to see the home he grew up in.

_Azula always lies._

He stayed silent, still glancing between them. Azula's eyes widened as if she had realized something, just as he gritted his teeth, baring them and growling as his fist shot forward toward Aang. As it outstretched, his body turned and the flame shooting from his fist blasted at his sister, who looked surprised, for one of the first times in her life. She raised her arm and pushed the flame off to one side.

"You're a fool, brother!" she seethed, taking a precautionary step back and assuming a stance. "You're a traitor to the Fire Nation!"

Zuko kept his concentration on her movements, as they stepped sideways, circling each other. She attacked first, blue fire spitting out toward him as she shot herself into the air above him. His eyes followed her as his hands repetitively shot bursts of bright orange flames that collided with hers. Aang, not far off, glanced at Katara, who was smiling fondly.

"What did you do to him?" he asked.

She shrugged, before grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward Zuko. They ended up either side of the firebender, both combining their bending to bring a wave over the three of them that blocked a shot of blue flames that Zuko couldn't have dodged or blocked. He looked at Katara, who collected some more water and bore thick tentacles of it from her arms, stepping back to get a good aim on Azula. Zuko then met Aang's skeptic gaze, before the shield over head dissipated and his hands clenched into fists, long tails of fire traveling ahead of him in the same fashion as Katara used.

Azula landed on the other side of the canal, a hand on the ground to steady herself. She had expected Zuko to jump for the opportunity to regain his honor, but now she had to conjugate a new plan. She was relieved slightly when the Dai Lee stepped into a U-formation around the trio, with her at the opening at the canal.

"Perhaps Uncle can pass to you the ways of tea and failure!" Azula crossed her arms, walking sultrily toward the edge of the canal, spitting out an evil laugh.

Zuko growled, snapping one tendril of fire down at Azula. She narrowly dodged it by stepping to the side. She pulled a face as she saw that it had shortened one of her bangs by a fraction of an inch. Her crossed arms fell to her sides, before she raised them and held two fingers at the end of one hand, and a flat palm on the other. Blue fire trailed from her hands as she crashed one forearm above the other, combining the bending of both arms and forcing a large bullet of fire at them.

Katara raced ahead of the two boys, drawing up a shield from the tentacles on each arm and a sheet of ice from the canal, that she drew up high enough to block the attack. She then pushed it forwards, melting as it splashed down over Azula, who growled angrily, shaking herself as dry as best she could, her bangs sticking to her face. Aang ripped up the earth under the Dai Lee agents advancing on him as Zuko blasted his share of them backwards with his firebending.

Azula shot at Katara's feet across the canal, making her jump back away from it, drawing up more water into a ball and stretching it out at the end of a whip, whacking it toward Azula like a wrecking ball. Azula dissipated this with a single flash of orange flames, before pushing a blue streak sideways as if to slash through her middle. Katara snapped a water whip at Azula that grabbed hold of the princess's wrist. Azula struggled to pull free of the grip on her arm, resorting to bending with one foot to break the connection of the water.

Aang and Zuko ran up from behind her and each took a side as they blasted their elements at the princess, who struggled to build a wall of fire strong enough to withstand the impact of fire, air and water at once. As the smoke cleared, the princess pushed wet hair back behind her ears as she gritted her teeth angrily. This was admittedly not going well. Had she not stepped into this, Zuko would have stayed a refugee, and the Avatar's troupe would be one person less right now. She probably could have handled this if it was Azula and the Dai Lee versus the Avatar and the waterbender, but somehow her brother posed a problem.

She growled incoherently and involuntarily. She'd always been the prodigy. Zuko had never posed a threat to her, ever. But now, joined forces with her most powerful enemies, he was stronger than ever. She screamed out angrily, blasting at them with repetitive punches. Zuko blocked the blasts by pulling a torrent of fire sideways in front of himself and his new allies.

Zuko's eyes widened. He'd never seen Azula so frustrated. She'd always gotten just what she wanted, and never ever did someone argue with her unless they planned on being struck down and executed. Azula shot a furious blast of blue fire at them, only for it to be dissipated by a wave of water from Aang and Katara. Aang stomped down on the ground and a few loose bricks from the canal came free and bulleted toward the fire princess.

She dodged them narrowly and glared at her older brother. "Your new friends don't play nice, Zuzu." She regained some of her attitude, glancing across them.

"When have you ever played nice?" Zuko snapped, bringing his eyebrows down.

"Oh, how true. You've never been stupid, big brother. Strange that hasn't helped you learn what's good for you. Oh, well. I'll enjoy killing you anyway." She slashed sideways with a flame that Zuko, Katara and Aang all had to jump to avoid, before she dashed forwards and pushed herself over the canal toward them.

Katara and Zuko stepped back as Aang took the lead, using his Airbending to catch her unbalanced where he could. Katara and Zuko glanced at eachother before turning to the circle of Dai Lee around them. The two stood back to back as Katara pulled water from the canal behind the agents. She formed a wave that raced toward them, sweeping away the agents with their backs to it. The ones on Zuko's side bent their feet into the ground to keep themselves from getting washed away by the wave. Katara snapped the wave into a whip, turning swiftly to face the agents on Zuko's side. Surprisingly, most were down on their backs, and the two remaining were already being knocked off their feet by a swirl of fire extending from his foot as he swung low and kicked out. He stood straight and glanced at Katara, who was watching him with a slight smile.

"What?"

"Nothing. Nice work." She shook her head quickly.

A loud explosion filled the catacombs as they snapped their heads toward it. Azula was pushing herself off the ground and throwing herself at Aang with force and ferocity. Katara glanced back to Zuko, before running at them to help. Zuko joined them, fireballs launching from his fists as he punched through the air. Katara drew up some water from the canal as Aang let a burst of air from his lungs out at Azula, whose hair flew back as she struggled against the gust.

She dusted herself off and fixed her hair, crossing her arms as she saw the Dai Lee agents approaching behind them. "The Avatar is mine. Take care of the minor inconveniences, will you?" she motioned a hand disinterestedly.

The Dai Lee immediately complied, advancing on them in such a way that it separated Katara and Zuko from Aang. Aang shot up toward the ceiling of the catacombs, darting between crystals as Azula shot them down and brought them crashing around the place, just another thing for them to dodge. Zuko kicked his legs over his head, swiping a powerful shot of fire at three agents. Despite bringing up a wall of crystals to protect themselves, they went down like a tone of bricks as Zuko's feet hit the ground.

Jagged rocks came shooting toward them, and they were narrowly dodging it as Katara's arms became tendrils again, snapping as best she could as the swarm of agents came toward them. Zuko struggled to stay on his feet as the ground underneath them tore apart. He steadied himself as he turned, agents surrounding him. Katara was off to the side, sporting an octopus form and holding back a similar situation to the one he was in. His hands crossed eachother before waving out a powerful shot of fire, pushing it into the agents advancing on him.

He took a step back, swiveling on one heel and kicking his leg in a roundhouse kick that knocked back more agents. It was useless, as more jumped down from the walls of the caverns. His hands formed tight fists as he shot both forwards, pushing a bout of orange into the agents and sending them flying back into the edges of the catacombs. He took a quick glance that swept his surroundings for a moment, before pausing to decipher his next move.

Aang let his feet hit the ground with a powerful strike, rippling up the rocks and earth beneath him. Azula planted her feet in the ground to keep herself from going anywhere, as Dai Lee agents swarmed around him to keep him from leaving Azula's aim. She outstretched one arm with a flat palm toward him, two fingers held up over her head behind her. She bore that smirk again as Aang's eyes swept over the catacombs.

Katara was struggling to keep the agents back, as was Zuko. He settled his eyes on Katara for a moment. Her hair had come loose in the fighting and from where he stood he could see her teeth were gritting in concentration. There were far too many agents for them to possibly win this fight. He had one tool left.

"There's too many." He said out loud, more to himself than anyone else.

_The only way, is to let her go. _Guru Pathik's words echoed in his head.

"I'm sorry, Katara." He brought his eyebrows down suddenly, turning his back to Azula and bringing up a teepee of green crystals around him. He dropped into a cross-legged position, linking his hands in front of him, shutting his eyes in meditation. Azula's eyes widened for a moment, before they narrowed into slits and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

Zuko and Katara both managed to turn their heads toward the scene as Azula paced slowly in waiting. A bright glow illuminated the crystals, both frightening and mystifying all present. Azula stepped back, as did all the Dai Lee agents nearby, their eyes widened in terror.

There was a blast, exploding throughout the caverns, catching everyone off-guard as the top of the teepee opened up with a pillar of light that Aang was traveling up in, his hands held close together as if forming a bout of energy. Katara looked up with a prideful smile on her face. No one was fighting anymore, everyone was staring up in awe. Zuko watched the Airbender rising up, somewhat glad he was on the right team.

His eyes and arrows glowed the brightest shade of white anyone had ever seen. Azula took her stance again, pushing blue steaks of energy along one arm, through her stomach and along the other. Her fingers pointed toward Aang, she let go of the blast of lightning. The majestic image of the Avatar convulsed wildly, the glow dissipating as he hovered in midair. Katara stared, the smile she had previously worn falling upside down as tears formed and rolled down her cheeks.

Aang started plummeting toward the ground as the water around Katara swiveled into a wave underneath her. She pushed her knee into the rolling wave, surging forwards atop it toward the point Aang was sure to hit. Zuko took a moment to regain his concentration, a fierce blast of fire knocking back as many agents as he could as he raced toward Azula with a determined look in his eye.

Katara caught Aang before he hit the ground, sucking him into a desperate embrace as she looked down at his lifeless face. She looked up, realizing she was on her knees with the Airbender in her arms. Azula was approaching with a menacing step, when two bouts of flame shot at her feet. One from Zuko, and another from … she looked. Iroh was landing on two feet and a hand. He stood up straight, addressing Zuko.

"You've got to get out of here! I'll hold them off as long as I can!" he informed him authoritatively.

Zuko's face softened in surprise. "Uncle-,"

"Go!" he shouted this time.

Zuko immediately complied, running to Katara's side. He helped her lift the Avatar by taking an arm each. He glanced over his shoulder at his uncle, who was blasting at Azula with powerful bouts of skillfully controlled flames. Katara drew a large swirl of water that wrapped around the three of them and carried them high into the air, her eyes focused on moving up. Zuko watched down as Dai Lee agents encased Iroh in crystals again and Azula stalked toward him. He then shut his eyes tightly, hoping his uncle would be okay.

**

* * *

**

Katara's hair blew past her face in the cloudy nightfall, as she looked down at Aang, lying limply against Appa's fur. She glanced up at Zuko as she took the spirit water's container from her neck. He nodded as if to say it was okay, his hands wrapped into the fur of the animal as Toph empathized with him on his first time flying. Katara opened the top of the flask, bending out the small body of water and moving it into a spinning disk in her palm. She lifted Aang by his upper back until his head rested over her shoulder, bringing the glowing water in her palm to the deep red indented burn on his back.

It swirled into the burn, glowing as it disappeared. A small, brief flash came over Aang's tattoos before she heard a soft groan of pain behind her. She lay Aang back, a hopeful smile lighting up her face as Aang forced his face into a small, brief, exhausted smile. She hugged him close again, grateful that he was alive. King Kuei looked back over his shoulder at the fallen city with a hopeless breath.

"The Earth Kingdom … has fallen." He spoke in defeat. Katara looked up to the others for a moment, before taking the reins and holding her arm around Aang, looking on as her focus settled on getting Aang to safety and comfort.

**

* * *

**

"Ba Sing Se has fallen, father, after a hundred years, we have finally succeeded in bringing down the Earth Kingdom capital." Azula dropped onto one knee in front of Ozai's throne. "The Avatar is dead. I defeated him in the Avatar state. The cycle is broken." She was pleased with herself.

"And your traitor of a brother." The Firelord spoke coldly.

"He has joined the rebellion." Azula answered simply, her head bowed low.

Ozai stood from his perch behind flames. "I want every bounty hunter and mercenary in the Fire Nation after them, Azula!" he raised his voice slightly.

"Father, I mean no disrespect, but what threat is he to the greatest nation on earth?" Azula looked up and met her father's evil eye.

"What _threat _is he?" he bellowed. "He is of royal blood, you foolish girl! If the Avatar is dead, the only opportunity to end this war that they have is to overthrow _me._" He spoke in a seething tone. "And where does that place _Zuko?_" he glared at her.

"Of course, father. I will set out myself to capture him."

"No." Ozai answered quickly. "Don't waste your time capturing him. Set a bounty on him. _Dead._"

Azula's mouth fell open slightly. "Your will be done." She bowed lower, before standing and turning her back to him, walking away. She bit her lip involuntarily as she held a helmet under one arm.

* * *

**A/N: I've always asked myself 'what if Zuko HADN'T betrayed them in Ba Sing Se?' and so, here's what I came up with. It's a big task, yes, but I'm prepared for it. Combustion Man will most likely be included, as well as Hama and other episode-driven characters. I'm trying to go with an episode-a-chapter idea. Ideas and help are most appreciated. Yes, most of this will be me desperately trying to get Zuko to fit into basic plot lines.**

**But alas! I'm giving it a go. I know it says the pairing is Zuko and Katara, and it will be, but it's more about the series than anything else. Zutarians deserve to know what things would be like if they were canon. And so, this is my gift to us all. Readers who already know me by 'The Vacation' and others, I must inform you I will not be quoting in this Fic, because then I'd run out of quotes for 'The Vacation'.**

**You'll also notice Azula being more humanoid in this. She's the character I relate to the most, strangely. While Katara looks the most like me, I certainly don't act like her AT ALL. Azula, however is a different story. I kinda felt bad for her at the finale, so I'm going to enjoy her while she has her mind. :)**

**Click the little button! Review! xxx Rhia**


	2. The Awakening

Aang's eyes fluttered open slowly. He continued to blink lethargically, forcing himself into a sitting position, dropping his legs over the edge of the bed and propping himself up with his hands on his knees. Sitting up, he let out a painful groan, clutching his stomach, feeling bandages wrapped securely around him and over his shoulder.

"What happened?" he muttered out, looking up with blurry vision. He caught sight of the Fire Nation banners plastering the walls, red and black at every corner. With a shout of surprise, he scrambled up to his feet, grabbing his staff on the floor. He struggled to the door and slowly turned the 'Z' shaped latch, pushing it open and peering out. After discovering it was clear, he pushed the end of the staff into the metal flooring, hobbling against it down the hall.

A corner came as he hobbled down, and he peered around it, holding his breath. He saw two young-looking guards in Fire Nation armor, long red capes and helmets covering their faces.

"Did you hear something?" said the shorter one, in a strangely casual tone, looking down the hall and catching sight of Aang.

Aang pressed his back against the wall, a second too late. Knowing this, he grabbed his staff and swung it like a bat, blowing air at them as he continued down the hall, struggling to move a little faster. He looked down the hall at them as he passed, having blown the mask off the taller one, revealing a familiar scar and a fair-skinned face that looked at him with surprise.

"Ah!" Aang shouted, moving even faster.

"Hey, stop!" Zuko shouted, pushing up onto his feet. "Get up." He looked at the other one, extending his hand. Sokka removed his helmet, taking Zuko's hand and getting up.

"Don't chase after him. He won't get far. I'm going up to the deck to get Katara before he hurts himself." Sokka looked to Zuko, whose hair was slightly longer, some of it comfortably falling between his eyes and settling one side of his nose. Zuko leant down to grab his skull-like helmet.

"Let me, you go after him." Zuko passed him, patting him on the shoulder.

"Why?" Sokka turned, backing down the hall after Aang.

"Obvious reasons." Zuko answered simply, grabbing the first bar of the ladder on the wall and pushing himself up it and onto the deck, hearing Sokka's heavy footsteps as he ran after Aang. Katara whipped her head around from what she was doing to look at him.

"What's going on?" she asked, standing up from her perch in front of a map Sokka had left out.

"He's awake." Zuko answered simply. Before Katara could question this, Aang was hobbling out at what looked like a sort of run, bending air behind him.

"Aang!" she ignored Zuko, running toward the Airbender. The boy startled at the color of her cape, before dropping his stance and blinking slowly. Momo jumped onto his shoulder, placing tickling licks on his cheek.

"What's going on?" he swallowed as the lemur on his shoulder chittered happily.

"I'm so glad you're awake!" Katara hugged him desperately, her eyes squeezed tight with a grateful smile on her face. She pulled away and smiled at him as the others crowded around, Sokka finally catching up with Aang. An unfamiliar tanned man stood behind Katara, with Bato nearby.

"Rise and shine, Twinkletoes." Toph crossed her arms with a smirk.

Aang nodded slowly, his vision blurring again. Toph brought her eyebrows down.

"Twinkletoes?" she added. "He's going down!" she shouted quickly. Sokka and Zuko both reached out to catch the sinking boy, but he collapsed down to the metal floor with a dull thud.

**

* * *

**

"Why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way?" Aang rubbed his forehead confusedly, taking the red robe that Sokka offered him. He pulled it on over his bandaging as he sat in front of a low table with Katara, who was pouring tea into a cup.

"You need to take it easy, okay? You got hurt pretty bad." Katara answered calmly, putting a wooden cup in front of him. "I like your hair." She added warmly.

"I have _hair_?" Aang's hands snapped to his scalp, touching the short carpet of hair on his head. "How long was I out?"

"A few weeks." Katara looked down for a moment, sensing the presence of someone behind her. She looked and saw her father standing behind her.

"Everything okay?" Hakoda asked helpfully.

"We're fine, Dad." Katara answered bitterly.

Hakoda outstretched his hand to Aang. "I'm Hakoda; Katara and Sokka's father."

"He knows who you are. I just called you 'Dad', didn't I?" she snapped at him.

Both of them looked at her for a moment, before Hakoda replied. "I guess you're right." He looked back to Aang.

"Nice to finally meet you, Chief Hakoda." Aang reached up and gripped the man's elbow in the traditional water tribe handshake.

"It's an honor to meet you." He replied with a warm smile.

"Great, great, now you guys have finally met, can we have a little privacy?" she interrupted, standing up as Aang did.

Hakoda paused, but eventually answered. "Of course." He nodded and walked off respectfully.

"Are you … mad at your Dad or something?" Aang asked tactlessly.

"What? Why would you think that?" Katara raised an eyebrow, giving him a look of suspicion.

Aang shook his head. "No reason." He grasped his staff to balance himself. "I think I'm going to go back to bed."

"Okay. Careful." She reminded him as he walked away. She looked back to the untouched wooden cup of tea on the small table next to her, taking a slow breath.

"He has a point, by the way." A voice came.

She looked up and over her shoulder at Zuko. "Huh?"

"_Are _you mad at your dad?" he approached her.

"No." she brought her eyebrows down. "And why do you care?"

He leant down and picked up the cup of tea on the table before standing straight. It heated up in his hand, some steam rising from it. "Because you have a family. The last thing you want to do is throw it away." He took a sip from the cup.

Katara paused, examining his calm expression for a second. "You're really bothered by what happened to your Uncle, huh?" Katara crossed her arms, trying to change the subject.

Zuko sighed. "And?"

Katara smiled softly. "Nothing. It's just … nice that you care about someone like that."

Zuko met her gaze, tilting the cup in his hand out of boredom. He showed no emotion whatsoever on his face, but he had a gaze that penetrated through her as if he could read her thoughts.

Katara looked away nervously. "I should … probably heal Aang."

"Right." Zuko frowned, looking into the cup of hot leaf juice as Katara passed him to go to Aang's room.

**

* * *

**

The officer and soldiers from the other ship began whispering to eachother as they crossed the bridge between the two ships as Toph ran out from her cover, grabbing the metal of the floor and shouting. "They know!" she twisted her hands into the metal, ripping it up all the way to the bridge, causing it to give out under them, dropping them into the water below. A rope ladder rolled over the edge of the other ship to the officer and soldiers floating in the sea below.

Katara took charge, dashing from the cover she'd taken, reaching down toward the water between the ships and lifting up a large mountain of water, pushing the enemy ship away and washing across the deck. A trebuchet loaded with flaming boulders fired from the ship at them, narrowly missing them. Another shot hit the hull of their stolen ship as everyone struggled to stay on their feet as it tilted. Toph shouted something as Pipsqueak dropped a thick disk of earth in front of her. She shot it forwards at the enemy ship, and across the water everyone could see the trebuchet collapsing at the impact the disk hit it with.

Aang tried to pull out from Sokka's grasp to help, but Sokka held him in place under cover. Katara focused on the water below as a cloud of mist rose up from it, almost veiling them from the other ship. A fireball shot through the mist, destroying the pillar of earth discs Toph was using to attack with.

"I can't just stand back and do nothing!" Aang shouted at Sokka, pulling free of his grasp and racing out onto the deck to help.

"Aang, no!" Sokka shot after him. He barely managed to grab Aang's staff to stop him. Aang looked back and stared at Sokka. "You're still hurt. And you have to stay secret. Look; Katara and Toph have got it." He looked to his sister with a slight smile. Aang frowned, tugging his staff back.

"Fine." He marched inside, passing Zuko, who was on his way out. Zuko looked at him for a moment, before looking at Sokka.

"What's going on?" he asked groggily, having been awoken from sleep, rubbing his good eye with the back of his hand.

"An enemy ship figured us out. We've got to sink them before they sink us." Sokka pointed through the clearing mist at the enemy ship.

"And how's that going?" Zuko stretched his arms out either side of him disinterestedly. One ship sounded like it could be easily taken out. Toph came walking toward them, as if she were about to ask them why they were standing around chatting.

"Things couldn't get much worse." Sokka turned his back to the water, looking at the prince as a loud screeching noise came screaming behind him. He covered his ears, turning around and backing away as the huge sea serpent towered over the ship. Zuko stared up at it in horror. "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" Sokka shouted across the noise.

"You make it so easy!" Toph yelled back, giving Zuko a smack on the back.

"What is that?" Zuko shouted, his eyes wide, no hint of grogginess apparent.

Before anyone could answer, a fireball from the opposing ship punched the serpent in the face. It let out a shriek before sinking back into the water and exploding at the other side of the other ship, its tail wrapping around it like a python-eel around a rodent.

"Thank you, the universe!" Sokka's arms fell to his sides as a triumphant smile lit up his face.

"_That's_ why they call it Serpent's pass." Toph turned and left, motioning over her shoulder to Sokka. "Come on, Snoozles; let's get something to eat."

* * *

"We're changing course." Katara walked into the navigation room. Zuko looked up from his conversation with Bato, who was manning the wheel. "We need to scan the coasts for Aang."

"What? What happened?" Bato turned and looked at her, concern written all over his face.

"He took off. We need to find him before he gets hurt." Katara's gaze averted from them as she felt guilt washing over her. "We could spend days looking for him at sea, but he's eventually got to wash up somewhere; a storm's coming. He won't get far." Katara shut the door of the navigation room, turning the 'Z' shaped latch on it. She approached Bato, before looking at Zuko. "What were you two talking about?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Sokka's invasion plan." Zuko answered simply, trying to hide a small smile on his face.

"Right." Katara looked back to Bato with a sarcastic hum in her voice. "No embarrassing baby stories?" she smiled at her sort-of uncle.

Bato simply smiled back. "I believe I was telling the young prince about the time your brother picked a fight with a penguin." Bato's smile widened.

The smile on Zuko's face dropped as Katara looked at him. "I'm not a prince." Zuko said slowly.

"Huh? What do you mean? 'Course you are." Katara glanced across his face.

"Not anymore, at least. I betrayed my country … when I joined you." Zuko lifted his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "There's probably a bigger bounty on my head than on the Avatar's right now."

Katara's face saddened and she looked out to the sea, scanning it for a flash of red amidst the blue rolling waves. The waves were beginning to get vicious and violent. She was right; he wouldn't get far in this. A flash of lightning struck through the sky's darkened clouds, causing her stomach to drop as if on instinct. She caught a bitter flashback of the precise moment Azula's lightning bolt had struck Aang from behind. She should've been able to protect him.

Zuko turned his head away from the flash of lightning, looking down to the floor. That sickening blast that had hit the Avatar had sent a wave of realization through him. His sister had no problem blasting him out of the sky. Shame was what he felt for her. The stench of burning flesh had echoed through the catacombs as he fell through the air toward the ground, a smell he would never forget. Perhaps the most moving thing of that event had been the state of Katara, during and afterwards. The tears that trailed down her face as her mouth fell open, and her heart sank. Oh, yes. He could've pinpointed the moment where she picked herself up and carried on.

Yes, she was one of those people who didn't sit around moping or even grieving. She picked up the pieces and glued it all back together, no matter how many times she got smashed into a million shards. Zuko looked up, seeing her watching the lightning with a bitter expression painted on her face. He remembered the saddened, almost hopeless expression on her face every day as she left the Avatar's room. She would sometimes be in there for hours, days at a time, even. And never did she come out looking hopeful or relieved. She barely spoke to anyone other than her brother, and holed herself up in her room down the hall from Aang's until the next time he needed healing.

Everyone had taken turns bringing her food to her room. She'd rarely come out, and when people brought her food, she wouldn't say much more than 'thank you'. Though he was sure when Sokka brought her food she would open up and cry in his arms, because Sokka would often leave the room an hour after he'd entered it, with tear stains on the red fabric of his shoulder, Zuko had known she was distancing herself from everyone. He'd understood it too, in some strange way.

"Oh, no." Katara's voice was broken. Zuko looked up and out to the small crescent of land nearing the ship. His eyes scanned it for a moment before he caught sight of a flash of skin, sprawled out on its back. Before Zuko or Bato could say anything, Katara had switched gears into efficiency. "Come on, we'll take Appa." She looked to Zuko. "We'll see you on the day of the eclipse." She shifted her gaze to Bato.

"Good luck." He glanced over his shoulder at her as she led Zuko out of the navigation room and down onto the deck.

* * *

Katara wrapped her arms around Aang so tight she nearly choked him. "I'm so glad you're okay!" she squeaked as Aang struggled to breathe. He lifted his hands to loosen her grip on him, but she'd already let go. "Don't _ever _do anything like that again, do you hear me?" she held him by the shoulders, looking into his gray eyes.

Aang nodded with a slight smile. "I promise." He looked up to the others. "So now what?"

"You need to learn as much as you can about the Fire Nation before the eclipse." Sokka crossed his arms thoughtfully.

"Which is why Sparky here is going to give us the grand tour of the place." Toph gave the prince a rough slap on the back. Zuko winced slightly.

"Please don't call me that." Zuko grumbled, offering his hand to help Aang up to his feet.

"You've got no hope." Sokka smirked. "You think I like being called Snoozles?"

"Right. Twinkletoes is worse." Aang smiled, taking Zuko's hand and getting up. Katara stood up too, crossing her arms.

"We should come up with one for you, Toph." Katara smiled for one of the first times in the last three weeks.

"It wouldn't work. You guys don't use nicknames the way I do." She grabbed something off the floor. "What's-," she paused. "Oh." She held Aang's broken staff glider with a rueful expression.

"It's okay." Aang took the staff from the earthbender. "It would give away my identity. It's better for now if no one knows I'm alive." He looked at it one final time, walking it up towards slowly running lava. With a short twirl, he stabbed it into the ground, where it immediately caught flame. Aang watched it for a second before turning back to his friends with a small smile. He had a lot to do, but with his friends at his side, things were going to run a lot smoother.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, my gosh, it took ages. You do kind of have to know this episode pretty well to really **_**get **_**this chapter, and that's pretty difficult because it's one of the less memorable episodes. In my opinion, anyway. This was SO hard to do. I think I'm kind of running with a theme that really opposes what happened in the Western Air Temple; you know, where Katara is the only one that **_**doesn't **_**trust him. I kind of want her to be the only one that fully trusts him, which is extremely hard because I'm having trouble with Sokka's character, which is why he isn't prominent in this chapter.**

**No Azula in this chapter, unfortunately. I want Mai to show up soon too, I have to admit. If not just to make Zuko's life a living hell. This episode had flashes to the Fire Nation where Zuko was, and so because that's not included in this chapter, it may seem like it's lacking something. So next chapter I'll be trying to flash to the Fire Nation where Azula, Mai and Ty Lee should be.**

**Righty then! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Reviews are love! Please don't be too harsh!**


	3. The Headband

With a soft groan, Appa's feet touched the ground and the cloud Katara and Aang were bending to keep their cover dissipated into thin air. Appa was sheltered from any civilian sight by a large cave protruding from the ground.

"Appa! Shh!" Sokka leaned over Appa's head and dangled in front of his face.

Katara grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him up onto Appa's neck. "Sokka, there's no one around. No one's going to hear us." She assured him. "Except maybe those birds." She added, catching sight of a few Mediterranean-looking birds on a branch sticking out of a small cliff about Sokka's height.

"Hey! Those are enemy birds!" he hissed to his sister.

"I'd be more worried about Sparky getting sick on you." Toph kicked herself over Appa's saddle and placed her hands on her hips, turning to face Appa's back, where Zuko was grasping his stomach with a disgusted look on his face.

"Right. Me too." Zuko slid down the side of the bison, wincing as his feet hit the ground.

"He'll get over it. But those birds-,"

Aang interrupted Sokka by speaking. "What are they going to do, dograt us out?"

Sokka groaned and grabbed his share of the supplies off Appa's back. He marched into the cave and threw down his stuff. "Well, this is it. This is how we'll be living until the invasion; hiding in cave after cave after-,"

"_Or, _we could just get some Fire Nation disguises." Toph walked in after him.

"Yeah, Sokka, blending in is definitely better than hiding out." Aang shot himself off Appa's back with a gust of Airbending and landed on his feet with barely a noise. "We'd _literally _be hiding under the Fire Nation's noses."

"Good idea." Zuko looked at Aang, feeling a little bit better. He suddenly found a flaw in that plan. "You can put on a headband and blend in without a problem, but I can't say the same for me." Zuko looked at Aang, a little bit of sorrow hinting in his voice. He looked down and away bitterly.

"Ah, see, this is why I love hair." Katara smirked, walking up toward him. "It's a long shot, but it might work." She reached up for his hair. He raised his only eyebrow as she started rearranging his hair so that his now-overgrown bangs fell in front of his scar. She took a step back and admired her work. Zuko looked to the others, silently asking how it looked.

"Meh, it works." Sokka shrugged. "Come on, let's get some new clothes."

* * *

"You asked to see us." Mai looked down at the princess as the masseuse working on her back moved away. Ty Lee waved cheerfully at Azula.

"Yes, Mai, I did. Seeing as you know my idiot brother better than most in the Fire Nation, I'm putting you in charge of the bounty hunt for him." Azula sat up and adjusted her red under bindings.

"Bounty hunt." Mai looked over Azula's face. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you mean you didn't hear? Oh, Zuzu went and joined the Avatar's little troupe."

"But the Avatar's dead. Why does he matter then?" Mai glanced at Ty Lee, whose head was tilted aside in concentration.

"I wouldn't know. I have direct orders from Firelord Ozai to bring him his remains." Azula inspected her nails.

Mai's eyes widened for a moment, before she regained her apathetic charm. "Okay, fine. Just tell me why."

Ty Lee looked to Mai as if wondering if she was crazy. No one ever asked Azula for a reason. They just did as they were told.

"I don't know." Azula repeated. "I trust I can give you this responsibility without a problem."

Mai paused. "Of course." She nodded, before clenching her jaw. "I'll make him regret the day he betrayed the Fire Nation." Mai turned to leave.

"That's what I like to hear." Azula sank back down into position for the masseuse.

**

* * *

**

"I don't know about this." Aang peered over the rocks at the laundry lines of a launderette. "These clothes belong to someone."

Katara glanced at him before looking back to the clothes. "I call the silk robe!" she burst out, before shooting from the rocks they were using as cover to her prize.

"But if it's essential to our survival … then I call the suit!" Aang blasted off after Katara and the others, plundering what the saw fit.

Toph grabbed her clothes while running, while Sokka stopped and inspected the fabric of an outfit he wasn't quite sure he liked. Zuko collected an outfit and darted after Katara, Aang and Toph, only to catch sight of a long brown vest with gold trims and decided he liked it. He snatched it off the line and pulled away the gold-colored belt that was pegged beside it, before running after them. Sokka caught up with them, an outfit under his arm as Toph was stabbing her feet through the soles of some shoes. The soles fell away to the ground and Toph wiggled her toes at Aang, who had finished changing and was tying the knot of his headband behind his head. He turned and spread his arms with a self-satisfied smile.

"Ta-da! Normal kid!" Aang looked at Sokka, who raised an eyebrow.

In a whirlwind of arms swinging and legs dancing, it must've taken Sokka about thirty seconds to pull his new attire on and inspect himself. He pulled a red ribbon from the pocket of his new tunic and let out his hair, only to tie it up in a traditional Fire Nation topknot. Zuko emerged from behind a large boulder dressed in a loose red tunic that came to his elbows with oversized sleeves, the brown and gold vest-tunic that came to his knees, though shorter at the sides, red trousers and knee-height boots with gold stripes down the middle and all the way to the curling toes.

He shrugged up his shoulders to loosen the newly washed garments on him. He walked up to them and dumped his Earth Kingdom garbs on the floor in the pile they had put their clothes in.

"How do I look?" He heard Katara's voice not far off, and looked up, to see Aang gushing with pink blotches coloring his cheeks. Ugh. He was so glad he hadn't gone through that awkward crush-phase at that age.

Only then did he register Katara's new outfit. She wore a single-strapped red top that left her midriff exposed, loose fitting, dark purple trousers covered by a bright red skirt and then a darker red skirt adornment, with golden wrist bracelets and armbands here and there. He found himself completely paused in time as he took in her new hairstyle. Katara looked at him and opened her mouth ask what was wrong, but Aang spoke instead.

"Oh … your mom's necklace." He raised a hand and pointed to it.

"Oh, right." She touched her fingers to it. "It's pretty obviously water tribe, isn't it." She took it off and looked at it in her hand, before closing her fingers over it.

"Come on, let's get something to eat." Sokka flailed his arms up in the air. Toph got up and followed Sokka, who was already leading the way to town. Aang ran after them with Momo on his shoulder, leaving Katara to glance at Zuko suspiciously.

"What were you looking at?" Katara cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Nothing." Zuko answered. "Your hair."

"Oh. What about it?"

"My mom used to wear it like that." He shrugged nervously.

She paused. "I can change it if you want."

"No, no. It suits you." Zuko smiled briefly.

"Are you sure?" Katara swallowed.

"I'll be fine as long as you don't send me to my room." He joked with a small laugh. "Come on." He motioned after the others.

At this, Katara smiled, before both broke into a run after the others.

**

* * *

**

"Has anyone seen Aang?" Katara asked suddenly.

Sokka looked back to the meat shop they had left about two hours prior. "Not since this afternoon." Sokka answered worriedly. It was starting to get dark.

"Wherever he is, he knows where we're camping. He'll catch up with us." Toph yawned, outstretching her arms.

"Maybe we should check around." Sokka scratched his chin in thought.

"Toph has a point. If we go around asking for him, we're going to draw attention to ourselves." Zuko outstretched his fingers as his arms fell loosely at his side.

Sokka paused and got up in Zuko's face. "Or maybe you just want to trick us!" he aimed a finger in Zuko's face. Sweat formed on Zuko's brow for a moment, before Toph stepped in.

"Calm down, Snoozles. If he wanted to trick us, his heartbeat would be _way _higher." Toph grabbed Sokka's shirt and pulled him away from the ex-prince. "Assuming he's not as apathetic and sociopathic as his sister."

"Trust me, I'm not." Zuko raised his hands innocently.

"Come on. Aang will catch up with us." Katara sighed with concern apparent in her voice. "We need to set up camp for the night."

**

* * *

**

"General Iroh." Mai spoke, glancing over her shoulder to be sure the guard was terrified of her.

The man in the cell said nothing.

"Please, I need to speak with you." She added.

Iroh turned his back to her and tucked his arms into opposing sleeves.

Mai paused and frowned angrily, before regaining an apathetic expression. "Okay, fine. Don't talk to me. You made a big mistake betraying the Fire Nation, you know. As did your nephew. I look forward to bringing him to justice." She ground her teeth, before turning and storming out.

Iroh glanced over his shoulder at her for a moment, before shooting up and grabbing the top bars of his cell and pulling himself up in repetitive chin-ups.

**

* * *

**

Aang walked calmly into the cave with a skip in his step, despite being covered in singe marks. He fell off his cloud nine at the sound of Katara's voice.

"Where have you been? We've been worried sick!" She stood up from her perch around a fire that Zuko had presumably made. Zuko and Sokka looked up to him, as Toph leant back in her earth-bent recliner.

"I got invited to play with some kids after school." Aang shrugged.

Sokka got to his feet and stared at Aang with his jaw dropped. "After _what?"_

"I enrolled in a Fire Nation school. And I'm going back tomorrow." Aang grinned happily.

Sokka continued to stare. All he could to was repeat what he'd just said. _"What?"_

Aang sat down and looked over them. Sokka regained his composure and cleared his throat.

"Aang, I'm going to try and be mature and not immediately shoot down your idea, but this sounds … _really _terrible." Sokka reached and put a hand on Aang's shoulder.

"Yeah, Aang. We already got our clothes. What do you need to go to _school _for?" Toph seethed. The whole idea of school was unattractive to her. After all, if it was anything like private tutors hanging around her house in their snobbish glory, it had to be pretty terrible.

"Guys, every minute I'm in that classroom, I'm learning new things about the Fire Nation." Aang reached into his shoulder bag. "I've already got a picture of Firelord Ozai." He showed them a portrait of the Firelord. Zuko tried to avoid looking at it, but failed. "And here's one I made out of noodles!" The Avatar added happily, displaying a paper with noodles arranged in replication to the art on the portrait.

At this, Zuko felt the corners of his mouth twitching up. A snigger escaped before he burst into full-fledged laughter, his hands racing to cover his mouth. Everyone looked at him suspiciously, only to catch him covering both eyes with one hand and leaning forward, laughing loudly. Katara smiled slightly at the sight of him. This was the first time she'd actually seen him laugh, other than back during the incident with the pirates and she, Aang and Sokka had stolen the Pirates' catamaran. But this … this was strange. Almost nostalgic. She could see he rarely laughed. He was the kind of person that enjoyed a silent humor in his head. Sarcastic he was, but not like Sokka.

He was sarcastic in a way that made him offer a small, self-satisfied smirk, where Sokka would burst out laughing at his own joke. Had Katara been paying _that kind of _attention, she'd have defined him as 'the strong, silent type'. The laughter he expelled into the world seemed to enchant her, with a smile pasted on her face, though she didn't know why she felt like his laughing was a victory of hers. It was as if she had changed him. She had shown him kindness where no one else would, and this new laughter he possessed was a testament to the kindness she had shown him.

For a moment, she saw him as a regular teenager. The kind who could sit down and laugh at some ironic humor that the world had offered him, despite the evils that had been done to him. Despite the hardship he had endured and the treatment his own family displayed to him, he could overcome it and still be charming.

Katara shrugged away her stringing tangent of thought, and raised an eyebrow at Zuko. "What's so funny?"

"That-," he paused and wiped a tear of laughter from his good eye. "_That,_ is the definition of an oxymoron." He looked back to the noodle picture Aang was holding up.

Everyone looked back to the picture before sniggering also. They regained their composure and Sokka was the first to speak again. "Admittedly, this could benefit us, but it's too risky."

"I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then. It goes right to the Firelord's palace. We were _supposed _to learn about it in class tomorrow, but …"

Zuko struggled to keep a straight face. True, there was no secret river, and he knew Aang was making it up to stay in school, but Zuko wasn't looking forward to flying again. Staying here as long as possible was only going to benefit his stomach.

"I _do _like secret rivers…" Sokka scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, fine. We'll stay a few more days."

"Yes!" Aang shot up, punching the air above him. "I gotta clean up. Don't wait up for me!" he gestured to the singe marks on his clothes as he shot off in search of some water to douse himself. As soon as the Airbender was gone, Sokka turned to Zuko.

"There _is _a secret river, right?" he gave Zuko an evil glare.

Zuko shrugged. "I don't know. They were building canals when I was banished. I guess there could be."

Toph smirked knowingly, and Katara leant back against Appa's leg, stifling a yawn.

**

* * *

**

"Guys, I sort of need to ask you a favor." Aang rubbed the back of his neck, walking into the cave. Katara was still half-asleep in her sleeping bag, while Sokka and Toph ate near the campfire. Zuko was leaning forwards near them, not eating but obviously deep in conversation with them.

Sokka looked up.

"I sort of got in trouble at school today. The headmaster wants to see my parents. What do I do?" he bit his lip in thought.

Sokka immediately rummaged through his bag and stuck his face into it. When he emerged from it, a fake beard was attached to his face. "Have no fear!" Sokka jumped to his feet.

Katara turned on her sleeping bag, looking up. "When did you get that?" she mumbled tiredly.

"While we were in town yesterday. I knew it would come in handy!" Sokka grinned. "Get up, Katara. You have to be his mom."

She pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her hair fell undone around her face and she half-heartedly wrapped it up into two large buns either side of her head. She stuffed her bedding into her skirt and pulled it up to mimic pregnancy. "Good enough?" she rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Yeah, fine," Aang spoke the same time as Sokka.

"Come on, let's go." Sokka spoke the same time as Aang.

**

* * *

**

"So I hear you've been to see General Fatso in the prison tower." Azula approached Mai, who was sitting in front of a vanity, combing out her long, straight ebony hair.

"That guard told you." Mai assumed in boredom.

"No, you did. Just now."

"Fine, you've got me. What do you want?" Mai turned on the stool and looked up at Azula.

"Nothing, actually. I'm trying to look out for you, silly. People find out you're visiting a traitor and they'll think you're plotting with him. After all, you do have certain … _affiliations_ with Zuzu."

Mai's eyes narrowed into slits. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Azula began, never one to back down. "You did once have a romantic interest in him, I recall."

"That was political. My parents raised me to be a potential Firelady. I was seizing an opportunity." Mai put the comb down on the vanity.

"Ah." Azula smirked. "So you're in no way _personally _affected by his turning his back on his nation."

Mai turned back to the mirror. "If I am, it will only help me in bringing him down. You know that, Azula."

"I'm very sure that's the case. After all, Zuzu was your only hope of becoming Firelady. I imagine your parents are distraught that he turned his back on his people. On you." Azula was playing her. She knew it. How she wanted to hit her. She wanted to hit her so badly that she balled her fist around her hair as she ran the comb through it.

"I said I'd catch him. What more do you want?"

"That's it, you see. My father doesn't want him captured." Azula grinned evilly, before turning her back on Mai, whose eyes were now widened in her reflection.

**

* * *

**

"That settles it! No more school for you, young man!" Sokka was ranting as the three of them walked back into the cave. He was stroking his fake beard imperiously.

"But I'm not ready to leave. I'm having fun for once." Aang frowned and looked down. "I'm getting to be a normal kid! You don't know what that's like, Sokka! You get to be normal _all the time_!"

Toph sniggered, causing Sokka to scowl at her.

"Guys, those kids at school are the future of the Fire Nation. If we want to change this place for the better, we have to show them a little taste of freedom."

"What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" Sokka grumbled. He glanced at Zuko. "No offense."

"None taken." Zuko waved a hand disinterestedly.

"Well?" Sokka crossed his arms, staring at Aang.

"I'm going to throw them …" he paused. "A secret dance party!"

While all of them stood and stared at Aang as if he had just decided to put out a fire with blasting jelly, Sokka was the first one to bounce back. "Go to your room!"

* * *

"Explain again how he got us to agree to this." Sokka grumbled, adjusting the positions of the lit candles on the stage platforms Toph had shot up.

"I honestly couldn't." Zuko lit the last candle.

"People are coming!" Toph shout-whispered to them. "Everyone stop bending!"

Aang immediately ushered Appa further into the cave. With a grumble of resistance, Appa reluctantly marched deep into the darkness. Aang turned to see the first person walking into the cave, closely followed by a large crowd of other students; and so began the struggle of getting them to loosen up to the music.

Katara sat down in boredom at an earthbent table with Toph.

"You know, I _know_ parties. My parents threw them all the time. I can't see why anyone would _want _to throw one." Toph looked down to a glass of honey-water in her hand.

"They don't." Zuko suddenly sat down at the unattended place at the table. "Most parties in the Fire Nation include people getting drunk, eating and fireworks. At least, three years ago, that's how it worked. They might have gotten rid of the drinks and fireworks by now. You know ... the fun parts?" he smirked sarcastically.

"I can't see drunks and fireworks as a good combination." Katara smirked back at him. By now, Aang had gotten the kids into full swing with the music. "Wow, look at him go." She watched Aang.

"Who knew Twinkletoes could dance?" Toph put her glass down.

Zuko paused and sat up straight, catching sight of Aang dancing with a girl with bangs and a ponytail. "Hey!" he called to Sokka, who was walking over.

"Look at him go!" Sokka sat on the table between Zuko and Katara and crossed his arms. "Who knew Mr. Avatar mastered _that _element." Sokka joked, glancing at Zuko, who was watching in awe. Katara leant around her brother and looked, catching sight of the dancing duo. She opened her mouth to speak, but Sokka interrupted, addressing Zuko, who seemed to be dumbfounded.

"Nice tactic." Sokka commented, stroking his beard, before looking at the firebender who was trying to figure it out.

Zuko regained himself and shook his head. "Huh. Amateur." He scowled.

"Right. Okay, pop quiz. Pretty girl, tall, slim, long legs, sultry voice. What's your opening line?"

Zuko glared at him. "I was too busy hunting the Avatar for girls."

"Well, _surely _in Ba Sing Se-,"

"_You _try getting a girl to go out with you when half your face looks like a fried komodo-chicken." Zuko seethed angrily, turning his face away from the water tribe boy bitterly.

Sokka paused. "Okay, jeez. Sorry." He got up and left him with Katara and Toph. However, Toph soon got up.

"I'm gonna go kick his butt for you, 'kay?" she smirked, before heading after Sokka.

Katara looked to Zuko, whose head was turned away from her. "Zuko …"

"Don't." Zuko turned his head to meet her eyes. "I don't want your pity."

Katara sighed heavily, calculating her words. "Your face doesn't look like a fried komodo-chicken, okay?" she stated adamantly.

Zuko's gaze was hard and skeptic. "You're trying to be nice."

"No. I'm not. I'm being honest. Do you want to know why I _didn't _heal your scar in Ba Sing Se?"

"You didn't have enough time."

"No. I … your scar is part of who you are. I don't know how you got it, but you can't just wipe it off like a stain. I'm willing to bet you'd give anything to forget how you got it, and I think that's why you wanted to get rid of it. Because if you got it in an accident, I'm pretty sure you'd realize that it's _not that bad._" Katara leant forwards and smiled warmly at him. She then sat up straight, readying herself to stand. "Now loosen up. Dance."

"Are you kidding? I dance about as much as those kids." Zuko gestured to the crowds.

"And how much dancing do you think I did at the South Pole? Come on. You teach me and I'll teach you." She got up and offered him her hand.

Zuko looked up at her smiling face, before smiling reluctantly and taking her hand, getting up.

**

* * *

**

"It _is _a dance party!" the headmaster shouted from the mouth of the cave, truant officers behind him. "You did the right thing in telling me, Hide."

"Anytime, Sir." A tanned Fire Nation Boy said from his side.

The headmaster turned to the truant officers, pointing into the crowd at Aang. "That's the one we want. The one with the headband!" Aang heard this, looked up and squeaked, before sinking back into the crowd at a run.

Katara let go of Zuko's other hand and tugged him by the wrist toward the back of the cave. "Come on!" she called back to him as he struggled to keep up with her.

"What about-,"

"He'll catch up with us!" Katara stopped and looked at him.

"You go." Zuko nodded confidently. Katara walked up to him and Zuko's mouth fell open in surprise as she ruffled his hair again, pushing it in front of his scar before smiling briefly and running after Toph and Sokka. The Firebender ran into the crowd, looking for the young Avatar. He caught sight of Aang ducking low in the crowd to avoid the truant officers seeing him. He seemed to be doing fairly okay, heading for the back of the cave. Zuko kept his eyes fixated on the Airbender, and darted to aid him as the tan boy that had been standing with the aged man at the mouth of the cave came up to block Aang's path.

Having spent a year studying lip-reading, and aided by the fact that this boy was a bit of a loudmouth, he recognized what the boy was saying to Aang.

"No one makes a fool of me on my turf!" he advanced on Aang. "Come on, fight me!" he towered over him, getting into a Firebending stance that Zuko recognized.

_Amateur._ He smirked, coming up behind the boy and grabbing his upper arm. He pulled it back, turning the boy as his leg swung out to the back of the boy's knees. The boy took a last-minute step forward to keep from being tripped. He suddenly growled at Zuko and shot his fist out, a weak flame bursting out at Zuko, who neatly pushed it aside with his brow down in concentration.

"I'll give you a fight." Zuko smirked as the boy darted toward him. Zuko stepped aside and put out his foot, tripping him and sending his face crashing into the dirt. "On second thought, we're pretty busy." He looked down at the boy, before turning to Aang and motioning to the back of the cave.

**

* * *

**

"We're safe, Sokka. You can take off the moustache." Katara looked across Appa's saddle at her brother.

"Oh, no, I can't." he ran his fingers over it in self-satisfaction. "It's permanently glued to my skin."

With a skeptic glance at Sokka, Toph looked back to Aang with sightless green eyes. "Way to go, Dancypants. I think you really did help those kids."

Aang scratched the back of his head. "I don't know. It was just a dance party." He smiled slowly.

Katara elbowed Zuko as if to say something, only to realize he was too busy with his head over the saddle trying to keep his stomach's contents in to do so. She shook her head and smiled at Aang. "It was some dance party, Aang." She smiled, before looking back to Zuko. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked worriedly, putting a hand on his back.

He outstretched his hand behind him with a thumbs-up to indicate he was fine, bringing everyone to laugh at his compromising position.

**

* * *

**

Mai marched into the umpteenth bar she'd entered that evening and slapped a poster up to the bulletin board on the wooden pillar near the bar. She pulled a stiletto knife from her sleeve and stabbed the portrait of the prince through the forehead. He would think again next time he made such a self-centered decision. She would make him regret the moment he pulled a flip-flop and turned his back on the Fire Nation. On his people.

On her.

Mai turned her back to the poster with bitterness painted on her face, undertoned by disdain and disappointment as bounty-hunter types crowded around the new addition to the bounty list. A man with a bald head and a third-eye tattoo pushed his way to the front of the crowd, examining the features of the prince. A female bounty hunter shoved him aside and smirked at the picture.

"Well, well." Jun murmured to herself. "Prince Charming went and got himself a reputation." She tucked her thumbs into her belt, glancing aside at the bald man next to her, who was glaring at the poster with determination. After all, the price indicated was enough to buy a small ember island manor. She put a hand on his shoulder as she face the door and whispered in a sultry tone.

"Race you."

**

* * *

**

**A/N: I love how this came out! I'm SO happy that Jun is in here! I love her! Review! Please review!**

**I've always wanted to use the word 'umpteenth'. And now I have. :)**

**And the reason Zuko knocked Hide over was because I really hated Hide. He got off too easy in the actual thingy, so now I will DESTROY him. Muahahahaaa! Oh, and because I haven't said it yet in this fic: I DON'T OWN AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER!**

**Again, reviews are love! xRhiax**


	4. The Painted Lady

Aang shot himself up onto Appa, who was trudging through the thick, brown waters of Jang Hui.

"You guys, I think this water's polluted." He looked down at himself, seeing himself dripping with clingy mud. He airbent it off of himself and onto the others on accident. Seeing this fault, he blasted out another wave of air that left them a little disorderly, but free of oozing dirt.

"That would explain why I haven't had a bite." Sokka reeled in his fishing pole. He dropped it down on the saddle and pulled out his schedule for the eclipse, sinking down into the saddle with the others. "Looks like we'll need to find somewhere else to get food."

"Is that going to fit in your schedule?" Katara snipped in annoyance as her brother looked over the long scroll unraveling in his hands.

"Sure. But that means we're only allowed two potty breaks today." Sokka held up one hand with two fingers stretched up as he smiled, impressed with his master plan.

"Maybe we can get food there." Aang pointed out toward a free-floating village on the poor excuse for water, before glancing back to Sokka, who grasped Appa's reins.

**

* * *

**

"I can't feel anything. Where is this village?" Toph's sightless eyes wandered over the edge of the small cliff.

"It's in the middle of the river." Sokka explained, squinting to try and see it better.

"Sure is!" came a chipper, yet cracked and aged voice. "My name's Dock. Mind if I ask who you are?" They looked down to see an older man getting into a boat loosely fastened to the docks. They struggled for a moment to decide what to tell the man, when Zuko answered.

"We're from the Earth Kingdom colonies." He spoke clearly, knowing nobody asked much of colonials.

"Wow! Colonials! Hop on, I'll give you a ride into town!" he croaked helpfully. Without much hesitation, the gang slid down the Cliffside and onto the dock, and helped themselves to seats on Dock's makeshift raft. A few minutes into the trip, Katara spoke.

"Why do you live on the river?"

"We're a fishin' town. Atleast that's how it was 'fore the factory moved in." Dock whipped his oar over his passengers, nearly clipping Toph with it in the process, and gestured with his free hand to a factory on the edge of the river, slurry pouring out into the water from waste pipes. "Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up the river." Dock's voice was unusually casual for what he was explaining.

The gang stared at the factory for a few moments, before focusing back on the approaching village. Zuko's eyes stayed fixated on the factory with a sullen expression painted on his face.

"Now our little village is struggling to survive." Dock added with a small sigh. This little phrase seemed to hit Zuko like a physical blow, causing him to look down to the dirty waters to avoid the approaching town, idle civilians lingering around in depression and sickness. The raft pulled up to the floating village and the gang got up onto it, Toph clinging to Sokka's arm to lead the way for her.

"Thanks for the ride!" Aang waved back as Katara's gaze panned over the town, breathing in a panorama of village life, poverty stricken and sickness-ridden. Thoughtlessly, Katara and Zuko followed the others towards a food stall, both drinking in the horrible conditions these people were living in. Katara stopped, her eyes wandering still over the town. The others turned to look at her.

"Look at this place. It's so sad." She frowned hopelessly. "We should help them."

"We can't waste our time here." Sokka answered swiftly. "We have a bigger mission we need to remain focused on. These people are on their own." Sokka swung his hand across the air to emphasize his point.

"How can you say that?" Zuko interrupted. "These people are starving. We can't just turn our backs on them." He crossed his arms and glared at Sokka from behind Katara, who glanced at him thankfully.

"I'm not turning my back to them, I'm being realistic." Sokka glared back at Zuko. "We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the Firelord!" Sokka hissed loudly, only to get a slap in the mouth from Toph, who'd quickly found her way between the water tribe siblings.

"Hey, loudmouth!" she seethed at Sokka. "Maybe we should be a little quieter when talking about _taking out the Firelord_, hmm?" Toph's sightless eyes stared forwards, her hand cupped over Sokka's mouth.

Sokka sighed as Toph removed her hand, looking back to Zuko and Katara. "Come on, guys, be realistic about this. You know our mission has to come first."

A long pause ensued, Zuko looking back to Katara, whose face remained dead-set on helping this town. Eventually, her face dropped and she nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right." She looked up to Zuko with a sigh. Zuko also let his muscles loosen as he trudged after the others, Katara not far behind.

"Let's just get what we need and go." Aang decided neutrally, up ahead. They eventually came to a stall appearing to be managed by the same man that gave them into town, however now he was wearing a different hat.

"Hey, Dock. You work here too?" Sokka asked, approaching the stall, the others close behind.

"I'm not Dock, I'm Xu. Dock's my brother." Dock cheeped with a friendly smile. Obviously, this confused them, a baffled look on each of their faces.

"But we just saw you. You're even wearing the same clothes. The only difference is your hat." Aang pointed to him with his eyebrows coming down sharply.

"Dock works on the docks, that's why they call him Dock. I work here in the shop, that's why they call me 'Xu'." He flung his arms out either side of him as if someone should've been yelling 'tada'.

"I don't get it." Toph interjected.

"Me either!" Dock yelped excitedly, ducking down and pulling out a crate of discolored fish. "So, what can I get'cha?" he leant forwards over the crate. "Hey, I'll give you a special deal! Buy three fish and I'll throw in a clam for free!" he grinned, baring a few missing teeth.

Sokka pushed his finger into a fish, forcing out some of the gunk from the river. He squinted in disgust. "I think we'll just take the fish." He lifted up a pair of fish in one hand. Dock took it out of his hands and wrapped it up in brown paper, before handing it over the counter to Katara as Sokka paid the man. "Mind telling your brother we'll need a ride back to shore?" Sokka added.

Without a word, Dock disappeared under the counter and emerged with his original hat on. "Hey, colonials! My brother says you need a lift!" he skipped his way around the back of the stall and motioned over his shoulder for them to follow him back to the raft. The group followed him, but Katara paused when a young boy pulled on her skirt to get her attention. She turned and looked down at him, holding the wrapped fish in her hands. The boy was small, shirtless and thin, with torn trousers that came to his knees. He was barefoot too, and a rash was spread over his shoulder, most likely from bathing in polluted water.

"Can you spare some food?" the little boy asked, his hand still clasped around her skirt's fabric.

Sinking down to almost kneel, Katara unwrapped the fish and handed him one of them. "I wish I could spare more." She smiled weakly. The boy bowed to her thankfully, before running away and stopping at a bed-ridden woman, showing her that he'd gotten food for them. Katara's eyes followed the little boy to his mother, before she reluctantly turned to see Zuko looking at her, a similar expression to hers painted on his face.

**

* * *

**

"Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule." Sokka scratched his chin in thought, examining his plan. The night sky overhead made it hard to read it, but he dared not bring it near the campfire. "It's going to take some serious finagling to get back on track."

"Finagle away, Oh schedule master." Toph yawned sarcastically, falling from a sitting position onto her back.

"Well, for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day." Sokka sat down and watched as Aang and Katara split the pollution from the cooking water.

"Forty-three minutes." Katara grimaced skeptically and glanced at Zuko, who was sitting against a cliff, deep in thought.

Sokka looked back to Katara and crossed his arms. "Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Firelord in time for the eclipse, which, _by the way, _only lasts for _eight minutes. _And we just lost a whole day, so if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we have to wake up early."

"Well, _I'm _not waking up early." Toph sat up.

"Or we could just cut out all our eating breaks." Sokka added, obviously not meaning it, but trying to get their attention.

"What?" Aang piped up, staring at him.

"No way." Katara unraveled the brown paper bag, leaning over the cooking pot.

"Forget it." Toph gave him as good a death glare she could, not being able to see him.

Sokka smirked at their reaction, but was still unsettled by Zuko, who seemed to be sleeping with his eyes open, his sword sheath sitting at his side. With a sigh, he continued. "Either way, we have to leave first thing in the morning."

Katara frowned, unable to get the little urchin from earlier out of her head. If only there was something she could do to help them. She glanced at Zuko, who despite looking completely apathetic couldn't avoid Katara knowing he was thinking the same as her.

**

* * *

**

A loud groaning noise awoke the entire campsite, causing them to sit up in their sleeping bags and blink the sleep from their eyes and settle their gazes on Appa, lying on his side and groaning. Katara stood near the bison as if trying to decipher what was wrong, while inwardly marveling at the intelligence of the great beast, who seemed to know what she wanted him to do. For a split second, she wondered if feeding him all those berries had upset his stomach, however she shooed this thought away, knowing it was for a good cause.

"You guys, I think Appa's sick." Katara called to the others, bringing them to get up and approach Appa.

"What? Appa's sick?" Sokka darted toward Appa with comically wide eyes and a frown in the shape of a crescent moon. "That's awful!"

"Wow, I didn't think you cared that much." Toph crossed her arms with a slight smirk.

"Of _course _I care! We might as well just throw our schedule away right now!" Sokka threw his arms up in frustration.

The gang gave him a long cold, unforgiving glare before he rephrased.

"**_And_** I'm upset because my big furry friend is feeling under the weather!" Sokka added, burying his hands and arms in Appa's white fur and pressing the side of his face into the fur, mumbling out baby talk or something like that.

"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water." Toph spoke thoughtfully.

"He doesn't look sick." Aang scratched his chin for a moment. "You okay, buddy?" he pushed open the bison's mouth as if lifting the mechanic's hood on a piece of machinery. A purple tongue unfolded from Appa's mouth, and Katara had to force herself not to grin in pride for her work.

_Mistress of deception. _She thought to herself in satisfaction.

"His tongue's _purple!" _Aang cried out. "That _can't _be good! Can you heal him?" he looked to Katara.

Katara had known someone would ask this. "He looks like he needs medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town." She motioned toward where Dock had taken them to town the day prior. The other moved ahead of her as she paused and looked at Zuko, who was looking at her with a suspicious look painted on his face. "What?" she asked quickly.

"Nothing." He answered swiftly, walking past her after the others.

**

* * *

**

"Is it just me, or does this place seem different?" Toph asked, blindly staring into Sokka's back. People were bustling around, the town lively and prosperous.

"Yeah, it seems … happier." Aang added in equal confusion, as a the same little boy who Katara had given food to the day before came running past kicking a ball around. Smiling to herself, Katara followed her friends to Dock's stall. By his hat, he seemed to be inhabiting his 'Xu' persona.

"Hey, Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked, putting a hand on the counter.

"Somethin' amazing happened last night!" Dock grinned happily. "Food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person … The Painted Lady."

"The painted who?" Katara squinted at him for a moment.

"The Painted Lady!" Dock clacked down a small wooden statuette of a heavily draped, cloaked and hooded damsel in a conical hat and veil, eponymous face paint that looked almost tribal on her pale face. "She's part of our town's lore. They say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now."

"See?" Sokka glanced at Katara, and then at Zuko. "These people don't need our help; they already have someone to help them." He looked back to Dock. "All we need is some medicine for our sick friend."

"Medicine?" Dock frowned briefly. "Sorry, all the medicine around here goes to the factory. That's why so many of our people are sick."

"Looks like we'll have a stay another night so Appa can rest." Katara said to Sokka, hiding her triumph in her head.

"I guess you're right." Sokka exhaled exasperatedly. "Do you have any more food to sell?" he looked back to Dock.

"Sure do." He held up a piscine monstrosity in each hand. "Would you like the one-headed fish, or the two-headed fish?" he turned one in his hand to reveal it had two heads.

Sokka mulled it over briefly. "Two-headed." He answered, earning a whine of revolt from the others. He glanced at them. "What? You get more for your money that way!" He barely managed out the words before his friends fled from the stall as Dock handed him it in some brown paper. Later, after he caught up with them and they mooched a ride back to shore, Sokka was pacing back and forth scratching his chin and waiting for Katara to finish cooking the dual-headed fish into a stew. "You know, actually, if that's all the Painted Lady plans on doing, that town's going to go right back to the way it was before."

Zuko continued scraping one of his swords against a nearby rock to sharpen its edge as Toph asked Sokka to elaborate, albeit with a sassy suffix. Aang was sitting at Appa's feet and toying with his long fur in his hands. Katara looked up with a dark look at her brother, who seemed not to notice.

"Well, eventually, that food she brought will run out, and they'll be back to relying on their sparse fish. It's like … you know they say 'give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for life'? It's sort of like that."

"But they already know how to fish. There just isn't enough fish for them all to eat." Toph raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever; the only way they're really going to be any better off is to make that factory go 'poof' and disappear with spirit magic or something." Sokka threw his hands out away from his body and made a 'poof' noise with his mouth.

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. Tell him, Aang." Katara dipped a ladle into the pot of stew.

"Yeah, Sokka. It's more like …" Aang hunched over and made a claw-like gesture with his hands, sputtering out a fizzing noise and gargling briefly. Toph shook her head and laughed, dropping onto her back in boredom as Katara scowled irately. Zuko scoffed a laugh at the two boys comparing imitations.

**

* * *

**

Katara slunk away in her makeshift Painted Lady attire, just a little too clumsily, tripping over Momo and making him cheep in confusion after her as she fled from the campsite. Momo clawed at Zuko's thick gray blanket before dragging his cat-like tongue over Zuko's unharmed cheek, causing the boy to stir and his eyes to blink open. Zuko saw the lemur tilting his head at him and he faltered, jumping out from under his blanket, momentarily terrified of the small creature. He shook his head and scolded the animal half-heartedly, before the sound of footsteps on pebbles came from far off. Zuko turned his head to the sound, catching a glimpse of a conical hat with a veil falling from it, and a dainty arm with red painted stripes moving behind a stout cliff. Zuko's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the concept of the Painted Lady.

Thoughtlessly, he hurdled Sokka's sleeping form and ran after the woman. Only after the others were out of earshot did he call after the woman, just as she came into sight. "Hey! Wait!"

Katara turned her head and looked over her shoulder, recognizing his voice, but still not believing it. As soon as she saw him, she could see he was running after her, fast. She shot off away from the firebender, her feet carrying her as quickly as they could. She could see the dock approaching ahead, but it was the middle of the night and Dock wasn't there. Then again, a spirit would be able to hover across the water, so that meant she could use her waterbending to get across. She struggled down the cliff to the dock and moved toward the water with a grimace. She really didn't want to get slime on her sandals. She stepped onto the slimy water, her bending holding her weight as something hastily grabbed her wrist. She tossed her head to see Zuko pulling her back onto the dock.

Zuko stared down as he felt the skin in his hand. She was a spirit; how could he possibly be holding her by the arm?

Panicking, Katara said the first thing she could in a fake, eerie voice. "You should know better than to interfere with the spirits!" she pulled free of his dazed grip, some of her paint wiping off on his hand as she knocked him back with her a flat palm and swished onto the river toward the village.

**

* * *

**

Zuko blinked his eyes open as the morning sky greeted him. She sat up and pulled his arms out from under his blanket. Red paint still sat on his hand, smeared on from his grip on the Painted Lady. He hadn't dreamed it up.

"Hey Zuko. What's that?" Katara asked casually, tucking Sokka's money pouch into her belt.

Zuko looked up. "Huh? Oh, uh … clay." He wiped his hand on his blanket.

"Oh. Well, I'm heading into town to get some more food. Everyone's still asleep. Want to come?" Katara invited, smiling briefly.

Zuko thought for a moment, before nodding and getting up without a word and following her into town. Walking along the wooden village, Zuko and Katara approached Dock's stall, where he was polishing something with a cloth, presumably his Painted Lady figurine. His hat was the same one he'd worn the first time they'd seen him. Life was bustling even more than the day prior, if that was possible. People they'd seen bed-ridden and idle were now busily scurrying about.

"Hey, Dock, is Xu around?" Katara asked cheerfully.

"Let me check!" he sucked himself down behind the counted and popped back up with his Xu hat on. "Hey there! Back again, are ya'?"

"Our friend is still sick, and we can't leave 'til he's better. Any more food?" Katara inquired with a chipper smile.

Dock produced a platter of noxious-looking clams and plopped them down on the counter. "That's too bad about your friend. Hey! Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will visit you in the night and heal your friend!"

"Yeah, and make us a midnight snack. Maybe we'll have a sing-along too." Zuko drummed his fingers on the counter sarcastically. He'd had enough of the Painted Lady for a long time. Katara glanced at him with a raise of the eyebrow.

"Yeah, Maybe!" Dock grinned in reply, oblivious to the Prince's sarcasm. "Y'know she visited us again last night; healed most of our sick folk, too."

Katara turned back to face Dock. "Is that why everyone's so festive?" she suddenly turned her head to the loud thump of the villagers erecting a huge statue of their beloved patron spirit. She stared at it for a second as Zuko took the money from her and paid Dock, who dropped the clams into a brown paper bag and wrapped that paper bag in another.

"Sure is. All of it's 'cause of the Painted Lady."

"Can you believe how much this place has been changed just by one lady?" Katara whirled around to look at Zuko. "-One spirit?" she corrected herself.

"It's great. She's obviously got it under control." Zuko shrugged awkwardly. "I'm glad they're being helped, anyway." He added as they walked toward where Dock was quickly changing his hat and pretending to have been there for ages. "Sokka has a point though."

"Huh?" Katara tilted her head to squint at him.

"Well, unless she plans to keep coming every single night, that factory needs to go." Zuko reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "Not that … I'm one to interfere with spirits." She drew up his shoulders.

Katara found herself smirking slightly. She'd scared the pants off him with her little charade last night. "No, you certainly don't want to do that."

"Huh?" Zuko turned his head to look at her. "Why not?" he gulped.

"Oh, well you saw what the ocean spirit did at the north-pole, didn't you? You don't want to anger them." Katara knew it was mean to mess with him like this, but honestly, after tying her to a tree, stealing her necklace, blasting her into objects and almost killing her, she deserved to have a little fun toying with him. "You can ask Aang if you want. There's this one spirit who steals faces."

Zuko cringed and looked down to the wrapped clams in his hand. "I don't have to worry about that one, anyway." Zuko managed a small smirk.

Katara smacked him in the arm playfully. "What did I tell you not five days ago?" she shook her head.

"_It's not that bad_ doesn't exactly fill me with vanity, you know." Zuko smiled at her, showing a little twinkle in his eye, both of them slipping into Dock's boat. After the trip ashore, Katara spoke again, making sure Dock was out of earshot, just in case he listened in and one of them said something a little less than Fire Nation patriotism.

"Well it's true. You can't just ignore it, but I don't think it's ugly." Katara shrugged thoughtfully, taking the clams from him.

Zuko looked up at her. "What?"

"I don't think it's ugly." Katara repeated, shrugging it off again. "It's just a thing, like any other."

Zuko tilted his head in thought. "Really?"

Katara smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

He paused, with a slight lopsided smile. "Thanks."

**

* * *

**

Zuko pushed his blanket away and jumped to his feet. If he was correct in his thinking, the Painted Lady would be in the village about now. He was going to find her, if not just to apologize for the misunderstanding the night before. He grimaced, tying his belt around his middle; perhaps she wouldn't be too happy to see him, but Katara hadn't been too happy to see him in the catacombs and look where it had gotten him.

And the last thing he wanted was to have his face stolen, however unattractive it was.

Pulling his sword sheath onto his back, Zuko marched away from the others, just in the nick of time, seeing her moving swiftly, yet casually, towards the dock. Silently, initiating Blue Spirit mode, he ducked low and darted across the landscape after her. Years hunting the Avatar came in handy as he sprinted in deafening silence. He pressed his back to a boulder as he saw her looking back. He hoped she hadn't seen him, and peeked around it. She was standing at the top of a steep slope toward the water, at the factory. Zuko snuck up on her and only when he was behind her, only two feet away, did he try to plan how to initiate a conversation without startling her. Then again, she was a spirit. She probably already knew he was there.

"Uh … Painted … Lady?" he asked politely.

Katara gasped and turned to face him in surprise.

"Don't run!" he held up his hands immediately, showing no weapons. "I came to apologize for … whatever I did wrong last night."

Katara held her arms daintily at her sides, trying to find something to say. Deepening her voice to the same tone she'd used the night before, she spoke. "You are wise to seek peace with the spirit world."

Zuko nodded slowly, dropping his hands to his sides. He smiled nervously. "I … I'm not really sure what to say to a spirit, sorry."

Katara glanced up, annoyed by her hat, at the moon. It was starting to sink back toward the earth. "You have made your peace. Now you must excuse me. I'm very busy." She put her arms out at her sides to let the heavy cape move majestically in the breeze.

Curious, Zuko leant down a little to try and see under her hat. Somewhat, he'd expected her to be a little ... taller. "Um … oh! Wait, can you heal my friend? I don't know what you know about huge flying bisons, but I mean … you must be able to do something, right?"

"Are you _deaf_?" Katara suddenly yelped out, annoyed with his persistence. She suddenly realized her fault in forgetting to mask her voice.

Zuko jumped back at her shout, putting his hands up in front of him. His eyes widened and his eyebrows came down in suspicion. "Katara?" he said through a thoughtful breath. "_You're _the Painted Lady?" his fearful posture became one of anger.

Katara let her shoulders droop as she reached up, removed her hat and sighed heavily. "I wasn't at first. I wanted to help the people and I just sort of … became her. I know, you must think I'm a horrible person for lying to you all-,"

"Wait a sec; is Appa even sick?" Zuko raised his good eyebrow and kept the other firmly down, not that he had much choice.

Katara paused. "I guess he could be sick of the berries I've been feeding him, but otherwise he's fine." Katara looked down, chagrined. She glanced back over her shoulder at the factory. "Zuko, I meant what I said, I'm very busy. Are you going to help me or not?"

Zuko glanced at the factory too. "You're actually going to destroy the factory." He stated skeptically.

Katara nodded slowly. "Sokka was right. The only real way to help these people is to get rid of this factory."

Zuko paused and took a heavy breath. _Girls are crazy. _He heard his own childhood voice in his head. "What's your plan?"

Katara stared blankly at him. He exhaled in exasperation.

"You don't have a plan."

**

* * *

**

Zuko rarely lacked a plan, but he supposed he trusted their teamwork enough to expect not to die on this mission.

Zuko punched the air, a blast of fire shooting down the metal door of the factory. The two of them raced in and made their way to the melting pots. Katara drew water from the condensation around her and slapped the bars that held three melting pots of boiling metal. They came crashing down and collided with each other, molten metal spewing out as Zuko drew out his swords and sliced through the rope on the wall that traveled up, over a bar and held a heavy engine at head level, most likely to have its undercarriage worked on. Grasping the rope as the engine went down, Zuko swung his swords together as one weapon, slashing through the weak rafters above, weakening the structure of the factory.

He landed swiftly on two feet and a hand, to see Katara running past him. He ran after her, into the next area, glancing back as a huge wave of dirty river water came crashing into the factory. His eyes bulged when he saw her running for a room that looked like a boiler room. He darted after her as she tugged open a heavy metal door and set her eyes on the boiler.

"If we overload the boiler, we can blow the whole place sky high." Katara turned to him and tilted her conical hat up to meet his eyes.

"And us with it." Zuko replied, looking up at the pipes running along the ceiling. Something hit him, familiarity of the night his ship had exploded, intending for him to die. "Blasting jelly." He heard himself saying under his breath.

"Huh?"

"Blasting jelly. There's got to be some here." Zuko led her out of the boiler room and took a glance at the map pinned up to the wall. "Maybe we can control the blast."

Katara grabbed it off the wall and took a look at it, seeing Zuko sheathing his swords in her peripheral vision. "There. Storage." Katara pointed to it. "Any idea how we can get down there-,"

She was cut off by an alarm, someone shouting out and _'Intruder alert! It's sabotage!'_

Zuko grimaced, snatching the map and shoving it back up on the wall, stabbing the pin back through it. "I don't think we have time for the blasting jelly." He stepped back into the boiler room.

"But you just said it was dangerous." Katara walked in after him. She could hear heavy clanking footsteps.

"I'm not blowing up the boiler." Zuko glanced up at the pipes. "These are fuel lines." He pointed up. "If I get the pipes hot enough, they'll ignite the fuel inside, travel to the outlet, and explode. The fire will get to the source and then the factory will explode. Gives us more time to get out." He glanced back at her.

She nodded quickly. "Do it already, then."

Zuko jerked his head up to concentrate and grabbed two pipes. Katara watched them turn bright orange in his grip, before turning white-hot, a small spark noise and a flaring sound became apparent. He brought his hands down and ushered Katara out at a run. His feet began pounding under him as he ran behind her. Katara gripped a rail and swung around it to turn a corner. She nearly tripped on her painted lady robes, clutching the water on the other side of the walls in case. She could still hear more feet pounding through the factory. She let her mind wander to the chance of hurting the factory workers in this explosion, but quickly her mindset changed when she saw another room filled with melting pots coming up ahead.

While she knew everything would go down in the explosion, if she could block the path for anyone to follow them, it would only benefit them. She raced under them and let Zuko run past as she slapped the water from outside in through the windows and tipped the melting pots out into their habitat. Workers came running after them, baring firebending proudly. Katara washed the workers out into the river with a flick of her wrist. She turned her attention to the melting pots again. She poured one towards herself, using the water to cool it as it covered the pathway from any followers. She turned to see Zuko grabbing her hand and moving even faster, sure the place was going to go off like a powder keg any second.

"Run!" he shouted in a panic.

She struggled to keep up, her feet catching on her heavily robes. She could see the blasted-in door up ahead, just as a deafening explosion filled her ears and the two of them were propelled forwards, upwards. Zuko felt his back hitting the top of the tunnel, before the explosion blasted him out of the factory, straight into the slimy river. Groaning, Zuko glanced up as fire roared overhead, the factory collapsing in on its own foundations.

"Whoo!" Katara yelped in excitement, pulling her slime-covered conical hat off in the water. "Wow!"

Zuko grinned. "I never thought I'd ever say this about anything; but it looks better on fire."

Katara laughed out loud. And pushed herself ashore with her bending. She bent the goop off herself, but left the clean water there, sort of as a trophy. Not a single scratch was on her. "We'd better get out of here before someone sees us." She looked back to the burning factory. Zuko nodded, standing up on the sand, grimacing down at the slime on his clothes, in his hair and all over his shoes.

"This is gross." He stuck his tongue out, disgusted.

"You know, sometimes I forget you're a prince." Katara shook her head and grabbed the slurry on him with her bending, tossing it back into the water. "There. Better?"

"Thanks." Zuko smiled briefly, ruffling his own hair to dry it. "Come on, let's go." He made for the campsite, Katara right behind him.

**

* * *

**

"… and you just flicked them away like buzzard flies!" Zuko laughed, clutching his stomach from his hysteria.

"Did you see yourself? You were all slashing stuff and setting things on fire and-," Katara cut herself off with a sob of laughter.

Zuko snorted another laugh. "-Oh, boy, are they going to be angry-,"

Katara erupted in fits of laughter, grabbing his arm to steady herself. He laughed with her, smiling. "The whole place just went … _fwoosh!_" Katara mimicked the flames bursting out. She could see the run rising out over the landscape. It was dawn. They got to the campsite to see all three of the others cross-armed and unimpressed.

"And _where _exactly have you two been?" Sokka squeaked angrily.

Katara jumped away from Zuko, letting go of his arm, just incase Sokka, well … you know. "Huh? Oh, we um … got up early and … Zuko wanted to know about uhh … constellations."

"I did?" Zuko looked at her. "Oh! Yeah, I did." He looked back to Sokka with a guilty smile.

"Lying." Toph yawned. "I didn't even have to use earthbending to get that one, Sugar Queen."

Sokka glared. "You have five seconds, guys."

Zuko glanced at Katara, who crossed her arms, holding her painted lady attire under her arm. "Are you going to tell them?" he asked.

She sighed heavily and threw down her disguise. "I'm the Painted Lady." She squeezed her hair to wring out the water. "Happy now?"

Sokka and Aang glanced at Toph, who confirmed it with a nod. Aang took a deep breath. "So Appa's not sick."

"No, he's not. But he's a great actor." Katara smiled sweetly at the beast, who gave her an almost appreciative nod.

"You held up our schedule to heal a few stupid yokels?" Sokka flailed his arms angrily.

Katara's anger flared up. "They're not yokels, they're people! And I will _never _turn my back on people who need me." She glared at Sokka.

Sokka turned his attention to Zuko, who for a change looked less intimidating than Katara. "And what were _you _doing? I'm pretty sure there's no healing to be done with _firebending." _Sokka put his hands on his hips. "Plotting with your evil sister?"

"No!" Zuko shouted, offended. "I was helping Katara!" he threw an arm in her direction. "Will you _stop _with the stupid accusations?"

"Are you kidding? You kidnapped Aang while he was in the Avatar state, burned down Kyoshi village, tied Katara to a tree-,"

"And _I've _forgiven him for that." Katara advanced on her brother, who stepped back. "He's learnt his lesson, now cut it!"

Toph grabbed Sokka's mouth before he could say anything. "The point remains, nothing's going to be achieved by us shooting off our mouths." She said, staring sideways, blindly. "We can catch up with the schedule if we skip the next location and head straight for the one after it, okay, Snoozles?" she uncovered Sokka's face. "We could even make time."

He scowled and nodded. "Fine. We'll get supplies, _but that's it. _Then we're leaving." He swung his arm across the air. "Got it?"

Katara and Zuko agreed, following the others into town, initiating a silence between them all, refusing to speak to Sokka for his accusation. Upon leaving, Aang spotted military types advancing on the village on steam-powered jet-skis, fury painted on their faces. Katara's jaw dropped as she glanced at Zuko, who gulped, and the both of them sped up their paces. Sokka grabbed Katara's shoulder and spun her around.

"_What _did you do?" her brother was frowning.

Katara cringed. "I … sort of blew up their factory." She said in a tiny voice.

"**You did **_**what?" **_Sokka exploded in her face, causing her to step back.

"It was your idea!" she held her hands up.

"I said to make it _disappear _with _spirit magic!_" He flailed his arms again.

"Well _obviously _I couldn't do that." Katara scoffed, pushing him away. "Now I'm going to finish what I started. I promised to protect these people." She moved to turn away from him. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

"Wait." Sokka sighed. "I want to help."

Katara stared blankly, shock on her face.

"I promised to protect you." He answered her silent question, and a smile lit up her face as she threw her arms around him.

"You really _do _care!" she hugged him tight, her voice cracking as he hugged her back.

Aang glanced at Toph, sniffling. "He really does care, doesn't he?" he wiped his eye with comic sniffles. Toph, without so much as a word, extended her fist and hit him in the arm so hard that he fell down.

**

* * *

**

The Painted Lady skittered across the water's surface, toward the village. Hiding under the wooden ground of the village, Aang blew a misting breath onto the water, fog erupting across the entire river. In the distance, Toph hit the earth with itself, a slow, loud, tribal drumming, eerily making the Painted Lady's presence known. Sokka fluttered his fingers delicately over a wooden flute, blowing a dainty tune out. Zuko crouched low on the roof of a hut, counting the soldiers making their way through the town. The military rounded up the entire village and an obvious leader, possibly a general, judging by his badges, paced between the soldiers and the villagers.

"I thought we could live as neighbors, in peace. But I guess I was wrong. You steal our food, our medicine…and then you destroy our factory." He paced, glowering at each and every citizen he passed.

"We didn't do any of that!" Dock put his hands on his hips and frowned. "The Painted lady brought us food! She's the one that healed our sick, not your medicine!"

The man laughed in Dock's face, before continuing to pace. "Right. The mysterious Painted Lady." He scoffed. **"WELL WHERE'S YOUR PRECIOUS PAINTED LADY NOW?"** he quickly shouted at no one in particular, his fist propelling a fireball at a house, destroying it. He initiated a raid on the village, demolishing homes and grabbing what little people owned, the soldiers attacking mercilessly. From a jet-ski, a grappling hook wrapped around a stilt holding up a house, pulling it and sending the home crashing into the water. Zuko quickly catapulted himself onto another building to keep from getting sucked down into the river.

The mist on the water thickened over the village momentarily. When it cleared, the Painted Lady stood proud, her posture relaxed.

"It's her!" a few children yelped from the crowd, before their mothers covered their mouths instinctively.

The general stepped behind his soldiers, shoving a few of them forward. "Do something!" they reluctantly drew near, but a gust of Airbending from underneath the docks threw them off and sent them running after their jet-skis and buzzing away. Another soldier moved forwards, shaking and cowering. With a swift slap of Katara's hand, the water underneath him shot up and spat him over into the water. Zuko got closer, up to where Katara stood. He leant over the weak roof, feeling his weight make the structure shudder. He slipped down quietly, landing on his feet and crouching low. He made his way to the edge of the deck, swinging his way underneath it, toward where Aang clung on. Aang's eyes met Zuko's as they silently arranged for Zuko to take Aang's place. _'I know what I'm doing', _Zuko whispered.

The remaining soldiers ran for their jet-skis and fled, leaving their leader to fend for himself. "I'll take care of you myself." He growled, his arms swinging around himself and fire forming as he blasted it at Katara. The fire reflected in Katara's eyes, for a second she considered flinching, when the flame shot up, skywards, before her, her clothes and veil rustling in the air caused by Zuko's redirecting the flame. Katara was thankful for not dying, despite hating how close the flames had come to her. She would have to remember to kill Zuko later.

Her arm raised at the general, she said in her fake, spirit voice; _"Leave this village. And never come back." _And that was all it took for him to turn and run from the dock. However, Aang decided to give him a little push so he landed face-first in the water. A wave of applause and cheering overcame the village, throwing hats up and celebrating. After a second of thought, the villagers began moving toward her.

"Thanks, Painted Lady!"

"I knew you'd come!"

"Thank you! Me and my brothers owe you a lot!" Dock came closest. Katara suddenly realized some of her paint had come off, because Dock's eyes widened and his eyebrows came down. "Hey, wait a minute! I know you! You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl!" he pointed. Katara stepped back. The little urchin she had given a fish ran up beside Dock.

"Yeah! You're the lady that gave me the fish!" he shouted angrily.

"You've been tricking us! You're a waterbender!" Dock crossed his arms.

"She's a waterbender! How dare you pretend to be our painted lady?" came a jeer from the crowd. The mass surged forward, but Sokka, who had rowed into town with Toph, ran to her defense, intervening.

"Hey, maybe she is a waterbender, but she was only trying to help you!" Sokka held up his hands. "Because of her, that factory isn't polluting your water anymore, and the army is gone! You should be down on your knees, thanking her!"

Katara removed her hat and put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "It's okay Sokka." She sighed, before turning to the villagers. "I'm sorry I lied to you. And I'm sorry I pretended to be someone I'm not, but someone had to do something. It doesn't matter whether or not the Painted is real, because your problems are. You can't just stand around waiting for someone else to solve them. You need to help yourself." She pushed back her hood and wiped some of the paint off herself.

Dock paused. "You're right. But what should we do?" he asked reluctantly.

Toph pushed through the crowd. "Maybe you should clean the river." She suggested. Nearby, Aang was helping Zuko back onto the deck. The two of them joined the other three.

"Yeah! We'll clean the river!" Dock turned to the people, who cheered at the idea. He turned back to Katara. "Thank you. You know, you ain't so bad for a waterbender."

Sokka slid into view. "You know, it would be great if we could keep that a secret."

Dock laughed. "Sure, no problem! Keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty! My brother Xu on the other hand, whoo! He's a blabbermouth!" he shook his head as the others formed an arc facing him, glancing between each other with a knowing smirk.

**

* * *

**

**A/N: Finally! I know I left out the last scene, but I don't think it was really necessary for the episode plot. This is 7483 words long, so that's why it took so long to update. Minimal Zutara, as you can tell. I fixed up that fight scene a little because I didn't like Katara going flying up, 'cause she'd have come down in reality with her skirt flying up. I reaped the benefits of Zuko's firebending :)**

**I'm very happy with how it turned out. Avatar Spirit Transcripts have come in very useful, too. I've had a **_**lethal **_**case of writer's block lately. My creativity is like Mai's emotion sometimes, you know? It's all bleugh and stuff.**

**I got in that factory scene after buying myself some new sneakers. That cheered me up :) Happy New Year everyone! Anyone else get to go to a sleep over and tell their family 'see you next year' ? :D that was the best bit. Xxx Review!**


	5. The Beach

"I don't know if you should be exposing yourself like that, Aang." Toph leant confidently against a slab of rock, ankle deep in water. "Maybe you should cover up."

"What? I'm wearing trunks." Aang lifted his head, floating in the water. Momo was curled up on his chest.

"I was _talking _about your tattoos." Toph kicked her foot in the water, splashing at Aang. "What if someone sees you?"

"Relax, Toph." Katara squeezed water from her hair. "This gorge is probably more privacy than we've had in a long time." Katara shook her head, running her fingers through wet hair. She stood knee-deep in the water, Aang floating nearby.

Zuko and Sokka were both sharpening swords on rocks. Sokka continued to insist that his space rock sword was stronger than Zuko's dual swords, somehow managing to keep the conversation going despite that Zuko kept shrugging and saying 'That works for you, these work for me'. Toph stretched her legs in the water and gave a small grunt of happiness.

"It's nice to finally kick back and relax a little." She smirked. "How often do we sit around and do nothing?"

"Doing nothing is a waste of time." Zuko snapped, now thoroughly annoyed with Sokka's one-sided conversation.

Katara pulled a lopsided, mischievous smile. "Don't you ever do anything _fun _in the Fire Nation? All you've done since you joined us is sharpen your swords and sulk."

"I'm not sulking." Zuko frowned.

Aang got his feet under him and stood in the water. "You kind of are."

Zuko gave him a death glare. "I've just been thinking."

"About?" Toph pressed on.

"About my uncle." Zuko replied coldly, sliding his sheath over his swords and dropping it down on the pile of clothes collecting at the water's edge. Zuko, by now, was the only person wearing all the clothes that belonged to him. Katara was in the water in her undergarments, as was Toph. Aang wore nothing but his trunks, and Sokka had removed his shirt under the hot sun overhead.

Katara sighed. "I don't think he'd want you to walk around looking like someone slapped you with a pout-stick." She teased, walking through the water toward him. "Aren't you hot? It's boiling out here."

Zuko didn't answer, leaning against the gorge wall, eyeing Katara with a frown. She put her hands on her hips, shifting her weight, and tossed her wet hair and caught it to bend water from it onto the dry sandy floor. With a small breath, she squinted at Zuko.

"Do you even know how to have fun?" She drummed her fingers on her hip.

Zuko gave her a blank look. "I've spent the last three years surrounded by men twice my age and my uncle. The closest I've gotten to _fun, _is Pai Sho and one too many glasses of rice wine." He crossed his arms, leaning against the boulder calmly.

"If you don't get in the water right now, I'm going to bring the water to you." Katara finally proposed, a smirk coming over her face.

Zuko let out an annoyed grunt and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You people are crazy." He grabbed his belt and pulled it off in one swift motion, his brown vest and his shirt coming loose, exposing muscular abs to Katara between his shirts. She felt a blush washing over her face as she warily continued to watch. He shrugged off his upper clothing and leant back against the boulder, removing his boots. He rolled up his trousers to his knees and walked past Katara into the water so it came to his waist. "Happy now?" he scowled.

"Yes." Katara smirked and joined the others in the water. "Come on, Sokka, even Zuko's in the water now."

"One second." Sokka held up a hand, leaning over his schedule.

"Ugh." Katara shook her head. She glanced off at Zuko, seeing a sort of tunnel behind him, where the water was flowing down. "Hey!" she pointed. Zuko turned around to see the tunnel, and when he turned back, Katara was racing toward him with her bending, his eyes popped and he shouted out as she smashed into him, the both of them toppling down the tunnel. They finally settled on their backs, feet first side-by-side.

Shouting in surprise as the water took them down the tunnel, Katara's maniacal laughter did nothing to calm him. Her hand was tight around his shoulder in exciting thrill and complete abandon, her other extended behind her as one of his hands reached across to grip her elbow in terror as his other arm was clenched in a fist in front of him. At the end of the tunnel, his feet made contact with a flat rock and his head was propelled over his feet and he flew through the air before his face came splashing down into the water of a bay.

Katara let go of him in the water and pushed her hair out of her face. "Come on! Let's go again!" she grabbed his wrist, causing him to flinch away.

"You're insane!" he yelled at her, splitting his wet hair so he could see her. "You nearly killed me!" he swam for the shore, Katara not far behind.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Katara murmured, still smirking to herself as she swam after him.

**

* * *

**

Mai crossed her arms. "I can't believe I agreed to this."

"There's no fun going on vacation alone, Mai." Azula repeated. "You'll enjoy."

"Yeah, Mai! I think this is a great opportunity to have a girls night out!" Ty Lee smiled helpfully.

"See? Ty Lee has the right attitude." Azula drummed her long fingernails on the rail, glancing again at the Seal-Lion pulling the boat.

Mai leant against a wooden pillar holding up the awning. "I don't want a girls night out, I want to find Zuko and tear him to shreds." She looked out to the island approaching.

"In due time, Mai." Azula smirked evilly. "Ember Island is a wonderful place to forget your troubles. Whether or not they involve traitorous ex-boyfriends."

Mai snapped her head to Azula as if to glare daggers at her, only to see her inspecting her nails. Ty Lee piped up. "Doesn't your family have a house on Ember Island?" she tilted her head curiously.

"Yes, Ty Lee. We used to come here every summer when we were kids. Of course, once mother left, no one was around to force us to go." Azula trailed off absentmindedly, as if trying not to touch on the subject. She glanced aside in thought. The boat steered up to the dock and Azula stood up from her lounging position on the cushioned bench, flanked by Mai and Ty Lee. Li and Lo stood on the dock with huge smiles.

"Welcome kids, to Ember Island!" They called together with a creepy kind of synchronization.

**

* * *

**

Mai gagged. "It looks like the beach threw up all over this place." She glanced to Ty Lee, who was making herself at home on the pink bohemian-styled bedspread.

"I think it's … zestful!" Ty Lee sat up, propped on her elbows. "What do you think, Azula?"

Azula turned from inspecting the room. "Well … it's certainly … feminine." She eventually smiled reluctantly.

"It smells funny." Ty Lee sniffed the air suspiciously. "Like … matured meat."

"Gee, I wonder why." Mai drawled in boredom.

Azula raised an eyebrow at the two, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why don't we head to the beach?"

Mai raised a hand and unbuttoned her luggage on the bed without hesitation. "Anything to get out of here."

Ty Lee and Azula exchanged concerned glances. "Mai … are you feeling okay?" Ty Lee asked carefully.

"I'm feeling fairly decent." She answered blandly. "Should I be feeling any better?"

Azula scoffed a single laugh. "You're having a free vacation to Ember Island with your two best friends. I'd say that calls for a little more than 'fairly decent'."

Mai pulled her fingerless black leather gloves off over her hands and pulled out her swimsuit from the bag. "I'll feel better when we get out of this pink monstrosity."

**

* * *

**

Azula pulled her team into a huddle. "The girl with the silly pigtails." She glanced, making the others look. "She's hesitant to kick the ball with her left foot. My instinct tells me it's from a childhood injury. If we deliver to her left, we'll defeat them easily." She stood straight and taking the ball from under her arm, she glanced back to the girl with the pigtails as Mai and Ty Lee took their ground.

She tossed the ball gently into the air before punching it up with a single fist, leaping into the air and spiking it down viciously. The ball flew through the air, before one of the boys on the other team punched it back over the net. It came bounding toward Ty Lee, who returned it by elbowing it up into the air and kicking a foot up acrobatically, kicking it back skillfully. The ball arced over the net and one of the players spiked it up for their 'secret weapon' player to run at it and slap it over the net toward Mai.

Mai frowned hard, determined not to be made a fool of today. She was already in a bad mood. She snapped up her knee, knocking the ball into the air and making leeway for her to whip it back with the back of her hand. The ball flew over the net, narrowly missing the head of one of the players and scoring for the girls' team.

Ty Lee clapped her hands happily as Azula smirked amusedly. The game was paid for and delivered to them on a silver platter, and thanks to Azula's deduction, they murdered the other team, Azula delivering the final, devastating blow. Azula led her friends back toward where their towels were laid out, only to be stopped by a tap on the shoulder. She turned to see a tanned boy with his dark brown hair up in a topknot. He wore a loose vest that revealed most of his muscular chest, and knee-length trousers with beach sandals.

"Hey." He smirked. "Nice game."

"Yes, it was." Azula replied disinterestedly. "Was there something you wanted?"

Her cold tone only made him more determined to get to know her. "Yeah. I'm hosting a party tonight at my house. You girls are welcome to join us." He glanced to Ty Lee and Mai.

His friend stood behind him, and Azula could deduce him as a little bit dim and shallow simply by the way he dressed. Most of his hair was loose around a face he most certainly adored, and he wore some in a topknot at the back of his head. A sloppy one. He wore a loose-fitting tunic with elbow-length sleeves and a belt that should have been tied to keep it shut over his body, but instead it was loose, letting his chest poke out of the shirt. He was also in knee-length trousers and beach sandals.

"I think we'll pass." Azula said through her boredom, unhappy with his deciding their attendance would be a benefit to them rather than themselves.

Chan frowned suddenly. "Um … I'd really like you to come. Please?" he tried, holding out his hand. "I'm uh … Chan."

Azula raised an eyebrow at him. "I suppose we could make time …"

"Really? That would be great!" Chan smiled hopefully. It was beginning to make Azula sick.

"I'm not sure, though, you see …" Azula smirked, enjoying toying with him. "We _are _on vacation to enjoy …"

"Oh, you'll enjoy! I promise!" Chan held both hands together desperately. "So you'll be there?"

Azula continued smirking. "We'll try." She motioned to Mai and Ty Lee. They followed her to the towels, before they all grabbed up their things to head back to Li and Lo's house.

**

* * *

**

In her sleep, Toph brought down her brows in concentration, lifting a knee up to flatten one foot on the ground. The vibration she sent out reverberated throughout the campsite and up the cliffs. A severely oversized mammal was nearby, with … she frowned, a person on its back. She blinked open her eyes and sat up slowly. The animal was negotiating with its rider how it would get down the cliff to them, when a deafening explosion filled the air and the beast reared up, its rider gripping on in a motion desperate enough for Toph to get a good look at her through the Shirshu.

Suddenly she was aware of her friends jumping to their feet as she could 'see' a grossly colossal man landing gracelessly on the ground near the woman on her now barking beast. Despite her animal's behavior, she was calmer than the man turning his head toward the campsite. The ground exploded, sending chunks of earth flying apart, forcing the gang to duck and dodge the chips of earth.

"Bounty Hunters." Toph heard Zuko growling bitterly. "They're after me. You guys go, I'll hold them off."

"Are you crazy?" Sokka yelled. "That guy's blowing things up with his mind!"

Zuko glared at Sokka. "If I've learnt anything from you, it's that you don't have to defeat someone to escape them." He grabbed his mostly-empty pack and threw it up onto Appa. "Just keep Aang out of sight." He ran at the gorge walls and grabbed for the protruding rocks to scale it.

"You heard the man." Toph bunched up her sleeping bag and tossed it up onto Appa, before grabbing hold of the bison's fur and climbing up to the saddle. Katara and Aang collected the camp supplies and carried them up onto the bison as Sokka climbed up.

"Toph, take the reins." He said, his back to her as he helped Katara into the saddle.

"Oh, sure, let the blind girl drive." She scoffed. Then again, how hard could it be? Appa wasn't blind, and he wasn't stupid either. Toph thought better than to try it, though, and continued with; "You do it."

Sokka grumbled, hurdling the edge of the saddle and grabbing up the reins on Appa's head. "Appa! Yip-yip!" he shouted quickly.

Katara put her hand on Aang's head and pushed him down. "Stay down. The last thing we need is for someone to see you." She grabbed a sleeping blanket and pulled it over Aang and backed up to him, making him look like an oversized bag as Appa pushed up into the sky.

Zuko flung himself over the top of the cliff and steadied himself on his feet, his eyes meeting with those of the oversized opponent with a third-eye tattoo. He smirked, getting into a firebending stance. The bigger they are … his train of thought was cut off.

The man growled and drew in a deep breath before a column of flame pierced the air and Zuko leant to one side, neatly out of the way. The flames had come close enough to make his hair blow in the wind, but Zuko returned to his stance with a neat arch of the back. Zuko slammed his back fist through the air, sending a burst of flames at the bounty hunter's feet. The man pushed himself off the ground with a powerful jump, coming down with another explosion from his forehead, this time at the earth under Zuko's feet.

Zuko retreated from the crumbling cliff edge, running at an extremely fast pace. The heavy footsteps of his gargantuan opponent pummeled the ground behind him, and he could hear the Shirshu's gait not far behind, moving even faster. Zuko searched the sky for Appa; he knew he couldn't escape Jun, even if he could escape the large man on his heels. He stopped suddenly as he came to another gorge with tall earth pillars throughout. He questioned whether he had the timing skills to make a chase out of hopping across platforms, but he was cut short when he had to use his bending to knock back another supersonic blast.

He made his decision and leapt onto the first pillar, landing clumsily and getting on his toes to keep from falling off the other edge. He already regretted this. He leapt for the next one, wide-eyed and wary as he put a hand on the ground, kneeling to steady himself. He'd never had a problem with heights, but the bender behind him would have no problem destroying the pillars from under him. Zuko blasted himself with a powerful jump, landing more skillfully this time. He was getting used to this now.

The ground under him began to crumble as the detonation sound filled his ears. He was sinking lower as his feet lost grip from the disintegrating pillar. He leapt with the last bit of ground he could find, his hands gripping a random column of earth. He pulled himself up and jumped to his feet, glaring back at the bounty hunter, standing on a column of his own.

**

* * *

**

"You're umm … early." Chan scratched the back of his neck, leaning in the doorway.

"I overheard someone saying you'd be partying from dusk till dawn. It's dusk, so here we are." Azula crossed her arms with a sultry smirk.

"But … that's just an expression." Chan brought down one eyebrow, pushing the other up.

"Oh, well … if you'd like us to come back later, we could." Azula inspected her nails for a second. "We might find something better to do in town, though …" she glanced back at her girls.

"I'm sure we will." Mai turned away first, eager not to attend any remnant of a social gathering.

Azula and Ty Lee followed as Chan called after them. "Wait! Uh … I didn't say it was a problem. I guess I could … give you a tour before the rest of the guests get here?" he tried.

Azula looked over her shoulder, before taking a glance to the other two. "Would you two like a tour?"

Mai shrugged as Ty Lee clapped her hands happily. "Sure!" Ty Lee yelped, before following Azula and Mai back toward Chan's house.

Later, as the guests arrived, Azula was holding a cup in her hand and smirking as Ty Lee approached, recently having thrown off three or four infatuated boys. She spoke in a sneaky tone. "You know, I think Chan really likes you."

Azula looked away, still smirking. "I know."

"He's like, under your thumb or whatever." Ty Lee leant against a wooden pillar holding up the roof.

"That was the point." She took a small sip, before looking around.

Ty Lee suddenly grinned. "You've been playing him all day?" she whispered with a surprised look smeared on her face.

Azula spotted him across the room. He turned his head quickly, pretending not to have been watching her. "Somewhat."

Ty Lee raised her eyebrows in thought, her eyes scanning the room as she focused on Mai, sitting in boredom on a bench near the door, next to a vase. The boy that had been at the beach with Chan earlier that day approached Mai with a confident step. Ty Lee turned away, only to see Azula and Chan retreating onto a balcony.

"Hey." A voice came from nowhere. Mai looked up from having been staring into the middle-distance.

"Hey." She replied monotonously.

"I can see you're having fun." He smirked sarcastically, leaning over her and putting his hand on the wall.

"My friends dragged me into this." Mai met his gaze with a brief smile that showed her annoyance with the situation.

"That makes two of us." He replied with a slight laugh. "Ruon Jian." He put out a hand for her to shake.

She reached up and shook his hand. "Mai." She answered with a ghost of a smile.

"You know, it's pretty quiet down at the beach at night. If you wanted to get out of here, I mean." He offered carefully.

Mai considered this a moment. She needed something to take her mind of things. Azula was gone, Ty Lee was out of sight, and she certainly wasn't enjoying alone. "You know what? I'd like that." She tilted her head, looking aside in thought.

Ruon Jian put out his hand again and helped her up.

**

* * *

**

Zuko groaned under the pile of rocks on him. He knew this was going to leave a mark tomorrow. He blinked open his eyes reluctantly and saw the monstrously massive bounty hunter looming over him and unraveling the length of rope around his shoulder to bind Zuko. There was the slap of a whip and the man stopped short, his eyes wide in confusion. He fell. Zuko hoped he wasn't going to fall on him. He looked painfully heavy. He collapsed to one side in an epic thud. Zuko saw Jun sliding down off her Shirshu and petting it.

"Good boy." She cooed, patting it proudly. She turned to face Zuko. "Long time no see, handsome." She offered a hand.

Zuko stared at her gloved hand in confusion. "I thought you were a bounty hunter." He raised his good eyebrow.

"I keep my political orientation separate from work, but this is an exception." He gripped her hand and climbed to his feet, brushing himself off. "Burglars, murderers, thieves, smugglers … I bring them in, _no problem_. Traitors and war criminals … they somehow slip through my fingers." She smirked, impressed with the short work Nyla had made of the giant at her feet.

Zuko scoffed a laugh. "So why did you help me?"

"You have _no _idea how many people put bounties on their significant others." She answered simply, running her tongue over her lower lip to check that her dark purple lipstick wasn't smeared. Zuko realized she was referring to when she had mistaken Katara for his girlfriend.

Jun swung herself back onto the Shirshu. "Until we meet again. Say hello to your girlfriend for me." She saluted loosely with two fingers.

"She's not my-,"

Before Zuko could finish, she and her animal dashed away. Not long after, Appa came down between the columns of earth and Sokka was laughing.

"Did you just get rescued … _by a girl_?" he was snorting hysterically between laughs.

Zuko growled under his breath and scaled Appa's fur onto the saddle. Katara and Toph quickly came to his defense. "Okay, then, Snoozles. If you ever get into trouble, we'll make a note not to rescue you." Toph patted Katara's shoulder, the both of them smirking. Katara looked to Zuko, who was rubbing his shoulder sorely as Appa soared up into the sky.

"So, was that who I think it was?" she pulled her mouth to one side in a half-smirk.

"In the flesh." He answered, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. Yep. They were really going to hurt tomorrow. On the bright side, he supposed, he was used to flying by now.

**

* * *

**

"You don't talk much, do you?" Ruon Jian's eyes narrowed.

Mai shrugged. "Guess I don't." she replied, staring into the campfire. He was sitting next to her on a rock, across from Azula and Chan. Ty Lee sat to one side, thinking about the irony of the situation they each had dates right now and she didn't. She supposed she liked it this way; she had a crush on a specific server boy in the palace and she was going to be faithful to her crush, whether or not the voice in her head called her 'just plain sad'.

"So, where are you guys from?" Chan had an arm around Azula.

"Capitol city." Ty Lee answered before Azula could. If they found out Azula was the princess, they'd probably start foaming at the mouth or something.

Azula smiled. "What she said." She was happy with Ty Lee's answer.

"Ever seen the palace? Six years ago, when they were still doing tours, my parents took me to see it." Ruon Jian spoke up. "It's amazing."

Mai let a small smile onto her face. "I've seen it too. It's nice." She glanced sideways at him.

"Yeah, it's really aesthetic. In fact, we all saw it together. We've known eachother forever." Ty Lee chirped happily. "Everything's so classy."

"I'm used to classy." Azula shrugged. "The palace is really nothing special on the inside."

Chan smirked slightly. "I haven't seen it, but I'm just going to agree with you. I'm pretty sure you've got good taste."

Azula tilted her head to him and met him for a casual, brief kiss. "You're wise to do so."

Chan laughed under his breath. Ty Lee sighed softly. It was one thing to have guys infatuated with her, but none of them really cared about who she was, what her tastes were or what her opinions were. In theory, they liked the idea of her, but not the real deal.

"I think I'm going back to the party." She stood up and brushed the sand off her clothes.

"Why?" Azula looked up.

Mai scoffed. "Because no one's drooling over her right now." She looked out to sea, ignoring the hurt look pasting its way onto Ty Lee's face.

Ty Lee crossed her arms. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean you don't _need, _to have all that attention."

Ty Lee frowned suddenly. "And what would you know about it? You don't pay attention to anything!" she snapped at Mai. "Everything's boring or lame or pointless with you! Your aura is this dingy, pasty … gray thing!"

Mai's eyes narrowed. "You think I care?"

"You should!" Ty Lee yelped desperately. She noticed something. "And I just insulted your aura! Don't you care?"

"Don't turn this around; this was about your need to have boys following you like the pied piper." Mai glanced back into the fire. "You love the attention; Like you're _so _special. Not that there's seven of you or anything."

Ty Lee felt tears prickling at her eyes. "So maybe I do like the attention. Would you like to know why?" she sank back to the ground in a sitting position.

"This should be good." Chan rolled his eyes.

"Shut up!" Ty Lee glared at him. "Yes. I had six sisters who looked exactly like me. My parents rarely got my name right! So I left and I'm happier for it. But you wouldn't know what that's like. Being happy. Being _anything._" She gave Mai a death glare, wiping at the traitorous tears that had fallen from her eyes.

"Great sob story." Mai blew up at her fringe and frowned hard.

"Well what's your excuse?" Azula glanced at her curiously. "For being so … apathetic."

"I need an excuse?"

"Well, Ty Lee obviously has attention issues spawned from a lack of attention during her childhood. So there has to be some _reason _you rarely have an opinion or emotion over anything." Azula shrugged slightly while speaking with her eyes closed.

Mai gave Azula a brief grunt of annoyance. "I don't have an excuse. Or a teary confession about my hard childhood. I didn't have one. I was the rich only child who got everything she wanted." She paused. "As long as I kept quiet. And did as I was told. And sat still. My mother made sure I stayed out of trouble. We had my father's political career to think of."

"Well that's it, then." Azula smiled slowly. "You had a controlling, overbearing mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That's why you're afraid to express yourself; Every time you did, you just got into trouble."

Mai groaned. "You want me to express myself?" she jumped to her feet and glowered down at Azula. "Just drop it!" she shouted angrily.

Azula raised a hand and looked at her fingernails. "There's no need to get touchy, Mai."

"Ugh! I'm not touchy! I'm angry!" she crossed her arms. "But let's not talk about me. Let's talk about _Azula. _She's so perfect, don't you think, Ty Lee?" she glanced at Ty Lee sarcastically.

Azula's face became a frown. "I don't have sob stories like you two." She looked into the fire for a moment. "I could complain that my mother liked my brother more than she did me, but I don't really care." She stared into a middle distance. "My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right, of course, but it still hurt."

Chan squeezed her shoulder. "You're not a monster."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew me." Azula peered downwards.

Azula glanced back to Ty Lee, who was sighing in relief. "Wow, what Li and Lo said came true. We really did learn about ourselves. I feel all smoothed now." She picked up a soft pebble and brushed her thumb over it.

"You know what?" Azula stood up, out of Chan's embrace and smiled at her friends. "I think we should go back to the house and have a girls night … _in._" she smiled softly.

Mai let a small smile on her face. "I think I could cope with the pink for that."

Ty Lee and Mai stood up. The three linked arms and waltzed way from the two boys without a second glance. Chan and Ruon Jian exchanged glances of stupor. Neither would ever understand girls. Neither of them would ever know what they had missed out on that night.

* * *

**A/N: OMG that was so unbelievably impossibly hard to write, but it was totally worth it. I love how it came out eventually. I had considered skipping it, but this episode was essential to the character growth of Ozai's Angels. Azula being lovely; YAY! I really miss Zuko's 'angry with myself' line, but I guess I'll have to survive… I did a few drawings of some scenes from this fic. They're on deviant art. I tried to put links but FF hates linking. Look me up:**

**xrhiax (no caps) The black and white one is my fave; the scene in Painted Lady, where they're in the water. Please look them up! You know you would have checked if there were links!**

**Yep, so that's about it. Oh, yeah, review! I love reviews! Also, I want to explain my reasons for missing out 'Sokka's Master'. It would have been generally the same, since it was Sokka-central. Maybe we'd have gotten a few rotten Zuko jokes, but that's it. I'd just like to remind you that Iroh had been working out and is now really, really buff. I have to admit, that really confused me; him being all muscley. Because he was portly again when he reunited with Zuko. Oh yeah, and Zuko would have identified the lotus tile Sokka got from Piandao. But whatever. Everything's much more in character in this chap; Sokka, for one. I'm also happy with how Mai came out. She's very hard to do because she's … well, emotionless.**

**So happy with this chappy! **

**Also, to anyone reading or writing Avatarians, I'd like to say that I am 'keepyourenemiescloser'. I've always sucked with secret identities.**

**Review! Tell me what you think!**


	6. The Runaway

"Ow!" Katara yelped, tripping over something soft on the ground. Her hands let go of the collected pile of dirty dishes and the wooden plates clattered on the cobble as the heels of her hands caught her from her freefall. She rolled onto her back and sat up, her eyes narrowing at the rope on a green duffle bag, tangled around her ankles. "Toph!" she grumbled, her hands reaching out for the plates again.

"What can I help you with, Sugar Queen?" Toph emerged from her Earth tent with an apple in her hand, a bite mark apparent in its red skin.

"I told you about leaving your stuff around the place!" she put the plates atop one another and stood up, before reaching down and picking them up. "Can you please put this away?" she kicked at the bag in annoyance.

Toph scoffed involuntarily, before stamping a foot roughly on the ground and shooting up the earth to push the bag into the air. She grabbed it and slung it into her earth tent. "Now it's not 'around the place'."

Katara grimaced before marching toward the wooden bucket beside the dying campfire. Dumping the dishes into the water bucket, she glared to her side at Sokka's messy, clumped up, unmade sleeping bag, just beside Zuko's neatly folded blanket. She kicked herself again; they still hadn't gotten him a sleeping bag. The prince had been reduced to either sleeping on dirt with a blanket over him, sleeping on dirt with a rolled up blanket as a pillow, or sleeping on the blanket with his arm under his head.

She stood straighter and looked about. Speaking of Zuko, he was nowhere to be seen, as was Aang. "Has anyone seen Aang and Zuko?" she turned her head toward Sokka, who was leaning against a rock, admiring his sword.

"Nope." Sokka answered.

"Yeah, I saw them. I was reading them a story." Toph chirped sarcastically.

"Where are they now-," Katara paused. "Oh." Her train of thought was cut off by a distinct crackling sound; a burst of fire, most typically from the end of a fist. She leapt into action, her feet hitting the ground painfully hard as she ran after the sound, Sokka and Toph quick on her heels. She started at the sight of Aang pulling an awkward half smile at the patch of burning grass before him.

Zuko, opposite him, grabbed the (previously missing) bucket at his side and threw water over the flames. "Good, but try aiming ... higher."

"You're teaching him firebending?" Katara asked incredulously.

Zuko shrugged slightly. "I figured I might as well start pulling my weight by doing something constructive."

"And you had to pay me back for helping you with that-,"

"ANYWAY, from what I can tell, Toph and Aang go training during the day, right?" he cut Aang off in the most uncomfortable tone anyone had ever heard from him.

"Absolutely not!" Sokka yelped, throwing his hands up and jumping between the girls and Zuko and Aang.

"Yes we do." Toph glanced at him in confusion.

"No, I mean, Zuko! Teaching! Firebending!" He flailed his arms toward Zuko and then toward Aang. "Dangerous! Bad!"

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Calm down, Sokka."

"Actually, he has a point." Toph put one hand on her hip and brought the other to her chin in thought.

"What?" Katara, Zuko and Aang all yelled at once.

"Well, the eclipse is going to make the firebenders powerless. Even if Aang became a master firebender before the invasion, he wouldn't be able to use it. He should really focus on his earthbending."

"What about his _waterbending, _then?" Katara glanced to her side at the blind girl.

"That's going to be useless too during the eclipse, since he won't need to be putting out fires." Toph punched her fist into her open palm. "Aang needs to focus on head-to-head combat with non-benders and possibly Dai Lee agents. I say Earthbending is his best weapon."

"Oh. So you don't think I'll be any use at all during the eclipse." Katara turned fully to face Toph.

"Uh, well, Sokka, you said it yourself, right? The eclipse is only going to last eight minutes." Zuko gestured to Sokka.

"Yeah, so-,"

"Not as much as me, anyway." Toph answered Katara, her brows coming down. "You disagree, Sweetness?"

"I don't know, you tell me!" Katara reached out toward the wet, charred patch of ground between Aang and Zuko and drew a sliver of water from it, before snapping it at Toph, who ducked and grunted in annoyance.

"I don't want to get into this with you, Katara." She smirked, shrugging off her agitation.

"Oh really? Why not?" Katara snapped the waterwhip at her side.

"Cause I'd kill you." Toph stood perfectly calm. "It's simple, really. I'd kill you, and then everyone would be upset, and it would be a big mess and I don't care enough about this to bother."

The boys winced as Toph said this; it sounded like Toph was egging the waterbender on. The waterwhip cracked again at Toph, who got into a stance and forced up a wall of earth before her, the whip splashing against it and forming again into ice crystals that stabbed through the air toward Toph, who blocked them all with an earth-shielded arm. Katara, now with no water left to bend, ran at Toph, who for once in her life was caught off-guard by the simple truth that if she blocked, she'd hurt Katara, and in all honesty, that wasn't something she wanted to do. Katara dove into Toph and tugged her over a mound of earth and instead of into a pond, which she had thought was there, into a gritty, slimy mud pond.

Mud splashed up on both benders red garments as they jumped to their feet and locked arms with one another, forcing against their opponent's grip.

"Baby!"

"Mud slug!"

"Fussy-britches!"

"Dirtball!"

Toph stamped one foot into the mud and splashed up into Katara's face, causing her to shut her eyes and spit out as her grip on Toph's arms slipped and Toph shoved her down into the mud. Katara kicked out and pulled Toph into the dirt also. When they came up, mud coated most parts of them as they grabbed out mercilessly, sometimes catching locks of hair, sometimes catching flying limbs.

The boys got up on the mound of dirt above the mud pit, grimacing at the fight. Both girls were the type of person who never gave in during battle and this had already gotten dirty. It was time for Aang to put his legendary negotiating skills to use before this got out of hand.

"Come on guys, this is _really_ dumb! We all know you have equally powerful bending abilities!" Aang tried hopefully.

Katara stopped and took a breath. "You're right, Aang. This is stupid. I'm going to go wash up." She turned her back to Toph and made her way out of the mud and disappeared in search of a water source.

"Great. While she does that," Toph earthbent herself up to where the boys stood. "Let's go find some food!" she bent the mud off herself in one swift jerk of the elbow.

Zuko refrained from going into town with them, considering the bounty on his head and the oversized Ozai-statue that had crossed his gaze as they'd flown overhead. He doubted he could stomach seeing the statue again.

**

* * *

**

Just as Zuko looked up to see Toph, Sokka and Aang returning, each with their arms full of food, Katara was returning from a bathing session which had obviously become a bending session judging by the time she'd taken. She was tying her old blue tunic on as a temporary replacement while her fire nation outfit lay damply over her arm. She clipped her fire nation clothes on the higher spit over the campfire as she looked to the others, putting down the supplies before her.

She took a sharp breath. "Where did you get all this?"

"I scammed a couple of scammers. It's not like they didn't deserve it." Toph shrugged, biting into an apple.

"Well, where have I heard that before!" Katara threw her arms up momentarily, before reaching down into her stuff and producing a waterbending scroll. "See this?"

"No."

"It's a waterbending scroll that I _stole. _From pirates."

"Woman after my own heart."

"No! Do you know what it got me?" Katara breathed out in exasperation.

"Tied up to a tree." Zuko suddenly spoke up, lounging on the floor against his rolled-up blanket.

"Yeah!" Katara gestured to him. "You can't stoop to their level, Toph! What you did was wrong!"

"Okay, well I'll just remember not to include you in anything fun, Princess." Toph waved a hand dismissively. "Since it bothers you so much."

"What did you call me?"

"Jeez, Katara, look at it this way; at least now we have some money to buy Prince Charming here a decent sleeping bag, and buy enough food to eat breakfast, like civilized people."

"Oh, yeah and this is civil." Katara gestured to Toph sarcastically. "I don't want this to become a habit, Toph. It's not right. And we don't need any more attention right now."

Aang smiled and pushed up his headband. "I'll make you a personal Avatar promise that it won't become a habit, okay, Katara?" he bowed to her.

**

* * *

**

Two days later, after they had returned from yet another scamming session, Katara was reprimanding them again. "These scams have gone far enough. If you keep doing them, something is going to happen."

"Could you for once stop being such a worrywart? Nothing bad is gonna happen. Lighten up." Toph sank down into a cross-legged position and grabbed a bowl of soup before her, which was marginally better than usual, thanks to the ingredients she had gotten the money for.

"Oh, _I'm sorry, _would you rather me be like you? Like some _wild child_?" Katara put her hands on her hips.

"Maybe. Maybe if you did, you'd see how great we have it. Traveling around the world? Doing what we want? Easy money? No parents telling us what to do? We're living it up!"

"Oh, I see. You're acting like this because of your parents." Katara scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Whatever." Toph exhaled with a half-hearted laugh.

"They were controlling over you, so you ran away, and now you act like your parents don't exist. You act like you hate them, but you don't. You just feel guilty." Katara glanced aside, trying to get herself into Toph shoes, to see where she was coming from.

"I _do _hate them!"

"You know what, it doesn't matter. These scams put us all at risk, and we don't need that. We've already got some third-eyed freak after us." She peered aside in thought.

"Speaking of the third-eyed freak, I think I've got a name for him." Sokka grinned. "Sparky-Sparky Boom man."

Zuko scoffed a laugh. "You're amazing with names, Sokka." He shook his head in sarcasm.

"I know, right?" Sokka grinned happily, oblivious to Zuko's sarcasm for a moment. "Hey!"

Katara continued. "We have enough money, okay? This needs to stop _here. Before _it gets out of hand."

"I'll stop when I want to stop. Not when _you _tell me!" Toph answered dismissively, before storming away and caving herself up in an earth-tent.

Sokka stretched out his arms. "Speaking of money, I think I'll go spend some. Later, guys." He waved a hand as he disappeared.

"Hey, wait up!" Zuko got up and ran after Sokka. With all the money they'd accumulated, they still hadn't gotten the ex-prince a sleeping bag.

**

* * *

**

"Toph, when I was in town, I found something you're not gonna like." Sokka unraveled a wanted poster in his hand, his new pet hawk, predictably titled 'Hawky', on his shoulder.

"Well, it _sounds _like a sheet of paper, but I guess you're referring to what's _on _the paper." Toph stood up from her position sprawled among a few comfy boulders.

"It's a wanted poster. Of you. They've nicknamed you 'the Runaway'."

Toph suddenly grinned. "A wanted poster? That's _so _great!" she enthused. "_'The Runaway'. _I _love _my new nickname! Is there a picture of me? Does it look good?"

Sokka raised an eyebrow, before checking her against her likeness. "Actually, yeah, it does look pretty good. But you're missing the point, Toph! Maybe Katara's right! Maybe we're attracting too much attention now!"

Toph gave a small scoff of dismissal. "Don't be such a worrywart like your sister. Think of it this way; now we have plenty of money to help with the invasion plan!" she produced a small pouch of money in her hand.

Sokka paused before making a small 'hmm' sound. "That _is _true…" he considered. "I had this idea of making armor for Appa…"

"Here's a little extra so you can get yourself a nice map of the fire nation." She passed him a few coins before changing her mind and handing over the whole bag. "You know what, make it an atlas."

"I _do _like expensive atlases…" Sokka jangled the bag in his hand.

"Of course you do." Toph snatched the poster from his hand. "Which is why _this, _is going to stay our little secret." She rolled up the poster as Sokka walked back toward camp as Aang and Zuko were headed in the opposite direction, seemingly to practice firebending.

"Do you even know what to feed one of those?" Zuko asked, eyeing the hawk on Sokka's shoulder as he walked past, stopping and turning as the water tribe boy passed him.

Over his shoulder, Sokka raised a lone finger and stuck his nose in the air. "As a matter of fact, I do not." He answered calmly.

**

* * *

**

"You're not seriously calling that thing 'Hawky', are you?" Zuko asked, holding a piece of bread in one hand and a smaller part he'd broken off in the other, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, sat on one of the large rocks they'd rolled toward the campfire as seating.

Hawky sat perched on Sokka's shoulder, who was spooning up mouthfuls of his second bowl of the same type of soup everyone else had finished long ago. Between spoonfuls, he paused and answered. "You got any better ideas?"

"No, but-,"

"Well, then you can't tell me that _my _idea is bad unless you have a better one!"

"I thought Toph was pretty good with names, right?" Zuko looked to Aang, who was munching on some rye bread.

"Yeah, Sokka, why don't you ask her? Here she comes." Aang, with Momo in his lap purring at the Airbenders touch, pointed as Toph walked up and sank into a sitting position at the monk's side.

"Ask me what?" Toph yawned, untying some money pouches from her belt and tossing them into the growing pile at the side of Zuko's expensive new sleeping bag.

"Zuko thinks Hawky needs a better name. I personally disagree." Sokka put his now empty bowl of soup down.

"'Hawky' is a little obvious." Toph replied in thought. "Does he have any interesting character attributes to be a namesake?"

"What?" Sokka squinted in confusion. At that moment, the messenger hawk let out a shrill squawk and jumped down from Sokka's shoulder, before flying a few feet toward Zuko and pecking at the bread in his hands.

Zuko smiled ironically and broke off a piece, dropping it to the floor for the bird to peck at. "I've always wanted a messenger hawk, you know." He spoke, mostly to himself.

Sokka leant toward the messenger hawk and growled. "Traitor-bird!" he seethed. "Since he likes you so much, why don't you have him, then." He sat straight and crossed his arms, offended.

Zuko shook his head. "Sokka, are you surprised? You didn't feed it all day."

"Well, _excuse _me, I didn't think it needed feeding like a baby." Sokka raised his hands innocently. The hawk instantly, having finished its piece of bread, jumped to Sokka's feet and began angrily stabbing its beak at Sokka's leather-clad ankles. "Ah!" Sokka jumped up and away from it, causing the other three to burst out laughing.

"Toph!" came an angry cry from afar, rapidly approaching. As if on cue, Zuko's new hawk jumped away from Sokka, onto Zuko's arm and behind the firebender's back, hiding from the angry water tribe girl. "What the _hell, _is this?" Katara was suddenly before them, snapping a sheet of paper in Toph's face.

"I don't know! Seriously? What's with you people? I'm blind!" Toph yelled in exasperation.

Katara turned the ink to face her. "'The Runaway'. It's a wanted poster, Toph! Are you proud of this?"

"Where did you get that?" Toph sat straight and glared with blind eyes.

"It doesn't matter where I got it! The fact is-,"

"You went through my stuff! You had no right!" Toph leapt to her feet and pointed an iron finger at Katara.

"What, you mean that haphazard pile of stuff lumped against a rock? I was straightening up and I found it." Katara crossed her arms defensively, the poster dangling in one hand.

"You liar! You're _lying, _Katara!" Toph formed fists at her sides.

"Fine! It's a lie! But I knew something was up with how crazy you've been acting lately, and I was right!"

Toph snatched the poster from Katara and stormed a few feet away before Katara yelled after her.

"Don't walk away from me while I'm talking to you!" Katara shouted.

"Oh, sorry, _Mom, _I didn't want to wait around for you to send me to my room!" Toph barked back. "Oh, wait! You can't!"

"I wish I could!" Katara threw her arms up in frustration, as the boys' eyes darted from one girl to the other as they retorted again and again.

"Well, you can't. You're not my mom, and you're not _theirs, _either." Toph pointed to Aang specifically. "You can't tell any of us what to do!"

"I never said I was!"

They babbled on endlessly as the boys proceeded to pick up the dishes before one single cry blasted over all the others.

"_WHY ARE YOU SO DIFFICULT?"_

… before the two of them stormed in opposite directions.

**

* * *

**

"Hey." There was a small voice from behind Toph.

"If you think you're gonna get me all mushy, you're sadly mistaken." Toph frowned, dangling her feet over a rock overhanging. "There's no way I'm going to apologize to that over-controlling matriarch."

Aang sat down beside her, his hands in his lap. "Well, it was either me come talk to you or put you through the speech Sokka prepared, so …"

Toph gave a small laugh. "Thanks for your mercy." Toph elbowed him lightly.

"You know, you have to admit, the scamming is unnecessary now." Aang glanced to her carefully.

"I know." Toph looked away from him.

"The reason Katara gets a bit … in your business, is because she worries, you know?" Aang leant forwards a bit to get a better look at her.

"I know." Toph repeated with a sigh. "And I like that she worries; it means she cares, right?" she looked to Aang hopefully.

Aang gave a simple nod. "It's a good feeling. For someone to care about you."

"Yeah. I guess it is." Toph pulled a lopsided smile. "But … it's kind of like she's stopping me doing what I like doing. Like my parents did with earthbending."

"Not really. She hasn't actually stopped you. And you know she only has your best interest at heart. None of us want to see you get arrested." One of Aang's hands dropped off his lap, onto hers. With a sharp breath, he withdrew his hand and smiled awkwardly, before she could react. He didn't even know his cheeks had bloomed red. Neither did Toph, but she had a good excuse.

**

* * *

**

"What do you want?" Katara turned and snapped. She paused and relaxed. "Oh. Sorry."

Zuko had flinched, and was straightening. "Uh … right." He looked aside at the slice in the boulder beside him that Katara's water whip had made. "Okay." He steadied himself as the hawk that had been on his shoulder fluttered a few feet away from him, registering what had just happened. "I was going to ask if you were okay, but I already have my answer."

Katara scowled. "I'm not in the wrong, so don't even try to change my mind. She's out of line and you know it."

"Yeah, but-,"

"But what?" Katara turned and glared at him.

Zuko had finally gotten the hawk to stay still and it had jumped again at her voice. "Agni, can you calm down? You're like a rocket waiting to go off."

Katara's eyes narrowed before she exhaled a long sigh. "What were you going to say?" she sank down to sit on a tree stump.

"I was going to say this is her way of figuring out her parent issues. You just have to wait it out. I hunted bald monks, you got all snappy at your dad … she goes all sneaky-criminal." Zuko shrugged calmly, leaning against the now sliced boulder beside him. "Try and see it from her point of view."

"Which is?"

"Hey, I'm only here because Sokka was going to come otherwise." Zuko shut his eyes and raised his hands.

"Well thanks." Katara answered halfheartedly. "You're doing a great job, by the way." She added sarcastically.

Zuko gave a small sigh. "Well, you're not exactly open-minded." He replied curtly. "Maybe Toph's right. Maybe you're way too controlling."

"What do _you _suggest I do, then?" Katara looked up from her perch on the stump. "Pull a girls-only heist with her?"

Zuko opened his mouth as if you give a suggestion before shutting it and pausing. "That's actually not a bad idea."

Katara pulled a face. "Right. Like I said, we have enough money. Unless it was like, a _huge _amount, it would be pointless."

"But the bounty on her head is ten times as much as all her scams put together!" Zuko laughed sharply. "It's simple! You turn her in, she escapes with metalbending and we take off for our next destination."

Katara stared at him for a long while. "I'll think about it."

**

* * *

**

"Someone with a bounty like yours shouldn't plan bounty scams, you know that, Zuko?" Toph frowned, addressing the mercilessly bound prince in the metal cell opposite her wooden one.

Zuko gave a small grumble. "Uncle always said I was terrible at planning." He was sat on his knees, his wrists behind his back shackled to his ankles. He suddenly groaned in annoyance. "What's taking them so long?"

"Relax, your highness, I'm sure they're figuring something out." Toph yawned, leaning heavily against the wooden grill. "Honestly, you would think-,"

"My muscles are cramping, I've been sat here for hours! I swear to Agni, if they're not here in the next hour, I'm going to burn off my own arms to escape!" Zuko growled fiercely, tactlessly thrashing and bringing himself to a horizontal position on his side on the wooden floor.

Toph suddenly straightened and firmly placed her feet on the ground, listening for vibrations. Her eyes narrowed in distaste.

Zuko's eyes widened. "Is that them?" he asked hopefully.

"No. I don't think so anyway. I think it's our dinner." Toph grumbled, crossing her arms as the door to the holding area was pushed open and a portly, short man walked in with cheap, twin flat metal plates of colorless slop.

Zuko gagged at the sight. "You don't expect us to eat that, do you?" he looked up to meet the man's sneer.

"Not you anyway." The man snarled, hurling a plate towards the metal cell and sending the gray slop splattering all over the flinching former prince. He trudged to Toph's cell and slid her sorry excuse for a meal under the wooden grill into her cell.

As the door slammed behind the man and the sunset's light flooded the room via the barred windows, Toph picked up her plate and turned it upside down, plopping the food on the floor. "You don't bite the hand that feeds you, Sparky." Toph scolded playfully.  
Zuko shut his eyes to avoid the sight of himself. Never had he been in such a sorry state, not even in his traveling days with Uncle in Ba Sing Se. Here he was, the ex-Prince of the Fire Nation, practically hogtied with gray rice-slop splattered on him as he lay on the floor of a prison cell. Zuko felt what little pride he had left these days depleting again. His mother would be disappointed.

A swift slicing noise forced him to open his eyes and he saw Toph standing in a wooden archway sliced open with the sharpened metal plate. Talk about resourceful. Toph approached his cell and tore open the bars before ripping away his shackles. The former prince leapt to his feet and tried his best to clear himself of the slop on his body. He was definitely going to bathe as soon as possible; he could feel the slop in his hair gluing together his thick, royal black locks.

Toph stormed the door and ripped it off its hinges to reveal a baffled guard waking up from sleeping at his post. Zuko didn't ask questions, immediately slashing out with firebending, his power-building rage restored by the treatment he'd received from his own people. A fire blast burnt away a patch of hair on the guard who'd discarded his helmet to sleep comfortably. Other guards assaulted the doorway he and Toph escaped from.

"Where the hell are they?" Zuko shouted to Toph, who had somehow gotten a far distance from him, and was using a hand coated in a full metal boxing glove to punch the daylights out of the guards, all the while grinning and cheering herself on.

Toph took down the closest guard to her with simple hand-to-hand combat, believing it best to refrain from bending in case it gave away anything, but that didn't stop her discreetly lifting a few rocks here and there to trip soldiers. Zuko catapulted himself up with a flip and stepped on the head of a guard to get to the tower above the holding area and snatch his confiscated dual sword sheath. When he reappeared, the remainder of the guards were on their backs and Toph stood triumphant near the massive Ozai statue, the citizens gawping in uproar, but not daring to come near the Runaway, the Blind Bandit, the one and only _Toph Bei Fong._

A sudden blast, familiarly reminiscent of a sonic boom split open the ground between Toph and where Zuko landed. Zuko's head snapped to his pursuer and he suddenly frowned; he'd only barely escaped last time by the skin of his teeth. "Uh oh." He took a comical gulp.

Sparky Sparky Boom man jumped down from his place on a roof top and blasted again at Zuko's feet, causing him to leap back. Where the hell were the others? As if on cue, a water whip smacked the back of the bald man's head, and he whirled around to stare at the waterbender who'd snapped it. Zuko shouted at her as Toph took off.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving your butt!"

Zuko may have answered, but Katara wasn't paying attention; the colossal man was advancing on her. She reached out for the moisture on her skin as a last resort and smacked Combustion Man on the cheek with a slight smirk breaking free on her face. She jumped from one foot to the other. "Want to dance, ugly?" she made a show of being light on her feet as if she were dancing. The Bounty Hunter's unique bending form tore up the ground beneath her. "Whoa!" she yelped. "Little help, your highness?" she called out to her friend as she narrowly avoided the huge ditch burnt in the ground.

Zuko nodded and blasted a ball of fire at the man's back, searing his clothes and causing him to grunt in agitation. "Thought you'd never ask." He punched the air again, this time knocking the bounty hunter off his feet so Katara could freeze an ice encasing over him. "Come on!" he beckoned her to his side and the two of them took after Toph, who had presumably taken off for the others to tell them to pack up.

They finally slowed as they saw the camp approaching and that most of the camp was already on Appa's saddle. Katara stole a glance at Zuko.

"What?"

"Why are you covered in … what are you covered in?" Katara reached and touched a lump of the gray slop on his shoulder. "Gross." She inspected it on her fingers.

Zuko gave a long sigh. "I may have insulted this slop that they intended to pass off as my meal, and so …" he grunted in confusion. "The whole thing was pretty degrading, lets just leave it alone." He held one wrist in the other hand and Katara caught a glimpse of tight, red chain marks.

Katara gave a sympathetic smile, before dousing him in water, which, to his knowledge, had come from nowhere. "Hope that helps."

Zuko smiled, though he wasn't sure he was grateful; now he was wet all over, and the slop was only partially gone. "Thanks. I think." Besides, he liked Katara, and as easy as it was to snap at her and say 'that did nothing!', it was just as easy to smile and admire her. Suddenly his new pet hawk squawked and landed on his shoulder, slurping up the remains of the slop.

Katara laughed at the sight of Zuko, _Zuko, _getting his face licked by a pet he seemed to have a kind of _affection_ for. Zuko, who had been the evil psycho stalker that had followed them around the world, was now a (incredibly cute, though she couldn't bear to say it aloud) teenaged boy with a pet bird. Katara liked to think she'd helped him change into that.

"I think … I'll name him … Nikko." Zuko felt the corners of his mouth twitching up.

"Cute." Katara smiled. "And I think … it's time we left." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, the both of them looking back to see an _actual _angry mob with pitchforks and torches coming after them.

"Good idea."

They raced up to the camp, clambered up onto Appa and disappeared into the sunset, ready for their next destination.

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**A/N: I know it's been ages, but … okay, I have no **_**but**_**. I humbly apologize from the depths of my soul. Hawky is staying! Did you know Hawky was destined to be Zuko's pet in the original series? He just somehow never made it to Zuko's shoulder, and now he has. I looked it up, Nikko means sunlight in Japanese, I liked the name. Hint of TAANG in this chapter! Yay! Oh, by the way, Zuko wrote 'Dear John' letter, that's what Aang helped him with, to Mai, since Aang's good at saying 'Dear monks, btw I'm not coming back' LOL. Except more of a 'Dear Mai' letter lol. Anyway, I'll expand on that next chapter. I love you people, thanks so much for bearing with the stupidly long wait between chapters!**

**I actually wanted Zuko to say 'want to dance ugly', but I figured in Canon, it would sound much better from Katara. I know there was no sisterly-bonding with Toph and Katara at the end there, but that's partly because I no longer understand sisterly love. My sister's gone to live with my dad and wicked step mother, so … yeaaaahhh….**

**ANYWAY - lol, I loved that. My older brother does that all the time when we ask him why he uses 'private browsing' on the laptop. We already know why he does it, but it's fun to fuck with his mind a bit. Hawky! Oh, plus in the earlier bit, Toph quotes John Bender in Breakfast Club (inaccurately, but whatever), just cuz i felt like it :)**

**I think, to reward you for continuing to read this, you deserve a quote from Avatar! Yay!**

Toph: Katara, you're a genius! A sweaty, stinky genius!

_**Until we meet again, Bond. Until we meet again. **_

**XrhiaX xxxxx reviews help me write my next chapter! :D xxxx**


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